Mobile terminal and moving body operation management system

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an operation management system for a moving body such as a vehicle using a mobile terminal. The present invention reliably and accurately records the operating conditions of vehicles, which enables management to gather accurate information regarding the work performed by a driver or crew in the moving vehicle. Moreover, the present invention realizes safe operation of a moving vehicle by detecting, during operation of a moving body, whether the moving body is exceeding the speed limit and informing the crew of this condition so that the driver will reduce speed to obey the speed limit. The present invention also deters theft of vehicles.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an operation management system for amoving body such as a vehicle and an operation management terminal or amobile terminal used in a moving body.

Although the present invention is directed toward moving vehicles on ahighway, the present invention can easily be applied to ships andaircrafts, or to terminals which may be carried by a person.

2. Description of the Related Arts

There is a demand for highly efficient management operation of movingvehicles, and for avoidance of any labor/management problems. For theexisting operation management of moving vehicles, daily reports ofoperation, for example, have been presented. For example, in an existingmethod, when a vehicle, such as a taxi cab, picks up a passenger, adriver of the vehicle enters the pickup section into a daily report withits charge. After the driver returns to the office, the driver presentsthe daily report. Alternatively, in the case of picking up or deliveringgoods, a driver (or a crew) enters the delivery point and arriving timeinto the daily report each time the driver reaches the delivery point.

Moreover, in order to check the distance the vehicle has traveled, atachometer is generally installed into a vehicle. After the vehicle hasreturned to the office, the contents of the daily report are collatedwith the record of the tachometer to verify whether the contents of thedaily report are correct.

In another method, a mobile terminal is installed in every vehicle andthe operating conditions of each vehicle is input into its correspondingterminal. FIGS. 34A and 34B are diagrams illustrating a mobile terminalfor realizing existing vehicle operation management. As shown in FIG.34A, an existing mobile terminal 1000 is provided with various kinds ofwork keys in a keyboard 1010 for information input. Each key is given afunction relating to the type of work being performed by the employee.The types of the work can be input by depressing keys. The types of workinclude beginning work, ending work, departure from office, loading orunloading goods, waiting, traveling an ordinary road, traveling throughan expressway (toll road), checking vehicle, washing vehicle, etc.Moreover, the mobile terminal is also provided with a key to input atoll for traveling, for example, on a toll road.

As shown in FIG. 34B, a driver inserts a card 1030 into a cardreader/writer 1040. When the driver places the key in the ignitionand/or the engine is rotated, a sensor input unit 1050 receives a signalindicating that the driver has started the vehicle. The main controller1060 controls the card reader and sensor input unit. The main controllerhas access to RAM 1070 and ROM 1080. The main controller 1060 receivesinput from the driver by way of the keyboard 1010, which is controlledby the keyboard controller 1015. The main controller displaysinformation to the driver by way of the display controller 1090 anddisplay 1020. The main controller 1060 also has access to a bar codereader controller 1100 and a bar code reader 1110.

In the case of inputting information into a mobile terminal, a driverinputs a type of work, by operating the appropriate key of the mobileterminal corresponding to the work. For example, when a driver leavesthe office to work, the driver depresses the “Departure” key. When adriver starts loading or unloading goods at the loading or unloadingpoint, the driver depresses the “Loading/Unloading” key. As explainedabove, each time when an employee performs work, a driver operates themobile terminal to input the information indicating the type of workperformed.

However, since the procedures are very complicated even in the method inwhich types of work and time are entered into the daily report or in themethod in which the types of work are input using keys provided on themobile terminal 1000, the driver often forgets to input data to thedaily report or to the mobile terminal 1000 and it is very difficult toeliminate this problem.

Moreover, since each type of work performed requires entry of data tothe daily report or key operation of the mobile terminal 1000, when aperson who is required to enter data is a driver, the driver must doother work in addition to the driving. As a result, the driver has anadditional and complicated burden.

Furthermore, it is also probable that a worker makes false entry orkey-operation at the time of inputting the type of work performed and itwill result in a problem for labor management. In an example of enteringthe types of work performed into the daily report, basically, there isno way of verifying whether the information entered into a daily reportis correct. It is possible, to a certain extent, to check thecorrespondence between the distance traveled by the vehicle and thedaily report by referencing both the tachometer and written contents ofthe daily report. However, this is not a perfect method. The direction,in which a vehicle travels, cannot be read from the tachometer, and itis impossible to check the actual route taken by the driver of thevehicle.

In addition, even if the types of work performed by the driver are inputby the key operations from a mobile terminal, it is probable that aworker will not input the data when the driver must execute the inputoperation or a worker will input false data by the key operations whenthe driver should not execute the key operations. Therefore, theaccurate collection of work information based on the information inputfrom the mobile terminal 1000 is disabled.

Further, since the routes of the vehicles are not recorded in themethods of the related art, it is very difficult to generate aneffective and economical operation plan, including determination offuture routes and sequence from the operating conditions in the past.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An object of this invention is to provide a moving body operationmanagement system for more reliably and accurately recording theoperating conditions of moving bodies with a more simplified method byreducing the burden on a driver or other member of a crew wherein themoving body may be a vehicle or other transportable equipment used bysuch a driver or crew member in performing work pursuant to workinstructing information, at a local or remote destination.

Another object of this invention is to collect information, such asoperating conditions in the optimum interval depending on the kinds ofroads and traffic conditions thereof, and moreover to prevent mistakesin collecting information by automatic selection of an informationcollecting interval without any manual operations.

A further object of this invention is to realize a mobile terminal,which can prevent theft and/or wrong use of a vehicle.

Another object of this invention is to save manual information inputoperation to prevent not only forgetting of input or input mistake butalso dishonest input of work information.

Another object of this invention is to prevent input error and/or wrongdemand of a toll, while traveling on a toll road, by saving the tollinput in memory by a crew to the mobile terminal.

A further object of this invention is to realize safe operation of themoving body by detecting, during operation of the moving body, whetherthe moving body is exceeding the speed limit and informing the crew ofthis condition, causing the driver to obey the speed limit of each road.

According to the first aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal to be installed in a moving body, comprising a memoryfor storing an identification code which is individually assigned toeach terminal, a collator for collating an identification code inputtedfrom an external unit with the identification code stored in the memory,and a controller for at least activating or deactivating the moving bodywhen the identification codes are judged to match as a result ofcollation of codes by the collator.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal wherein a second memory, such as RAM, is provided tostore a terminal identification code, which is inputted when the movingbody is activated, and to store a crew identification code foridentifying a crew of the moving body. The collator further collates thecrew identification code, which is inputted when the moving body isdeactivated, with the crew identification code stored in the secondmemory. The controller deactivates the moving body on the basis of thecollation result of the crew identification code by the collator. Thefirst memory and the second memory may be memories which are physicallydifferent or may also be memories assigned to a plurality of regionsobtained by theoretically dividing the inside of one memory area.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal comprising a transfer unit for receiving informationincluding work instruction data which is externally transferred toinstruct the driver utilizing a moving body, a controller for extractingthe work instruction data for the moving body and loading the mobileterminal with the information received from the transfer unit, and amemory for storing the work instruction data extracted from the transferunit by the controller.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal comprising an input unit connecting one or a pluralityof sensors, which are mounted on a moving body to output signalsdepending on the condition of the mounting areas, a memory for storingconditions of the output signals of the sensors and correspondingcondition of the moving body and/or work content utilizing the movingbody and a discriminating unit for referencing the memory based on theoutput signals of sensors input from the input unit to discriminate orascertain conditions of the moving body based on the contents stored inthe memory.

In this aspect of this invention, the invention may also comprise asecond memory for storing information concerning the condition of themoving body discriminated by the discriminating unit. This second memorymay be physically separated or different from the first memory or firstand second memories may also be assigned to different regions reservedby dividing one memory into a plurality of regions.

Moreover, in this aspect, the invention may also comprise a transferunit for transferring, to the external side, the information concerningthe condition of the moving body discriminated by the discriminatingunit; and a position detecting unit for determining the current positionof the moving body to store the information concerning the condition ofthe moving body determined by the discriminating unit into the secondmemory together with the information concerning the current position ofthe moving body determined by the position detecting unit. Moreover, thepresent invention may further comprise an output unit for outputting amessage urging a crew of the moving body to input the condition of themoving body and the type of work being performed utilizing the movingbody at the time when the discriminating unit judges that the conditionof the moving body cannot uniquely be discriminated based on the outputsignals of the sensors.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal comprising a collector for collecting the moving bodyoperation information such as the moving speed and moving distance ofthe moving body, and a memory for storing an interval for collecting themoving body operation information accessed by the collector.

In this aspect, a discriminating unit determines the current position ofthe moving body, the memory stores as a pair the information concerninginterval for collecting information and the position information, andthe collector collects, when the discriminating unit determines that themoving body has reached the position corresponding to the positioninformation stored in the memory. The operation information based on thecollecting interval of the collected information stored with theposition information as a pair.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal comprising a first memory for storing the toll roadentrance and exit information and toll of the toll road, adiscriminating unit for determining the current position of the movingbody, also discriminating whether the moving body is traveling on theexpressway or not by collating the current position of the moving bodyand the toll road entrance and exit information stored in the firstmemory with the toll of the section of the toll road traveled by themoving body by referencing the first memory; and a second memory forstoring the actual entrance, exit and toll of the toll roaddiscriminated by the discriminating unit.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amobile terminal comprising a discriminating unit for determining thecurrent position of the moving body, memory for storing movingconditions such as a speed limit of a road together with the positioninformation presetting the moving conditions, sensors for detecting themoving conditions of the moving body such as the speed of the movingbody, a collator for reading, from the memory, the moving conditionscorresponding to the current position of the moving body determined bythe discriminating unit to collate such conditions with the movingcondition of the moving body detected by the sensors and a controllerfor outputting a message to a crew of the moving body when the collationof the collator proves that the current moving conditions of the movingbody do not correspond to the moving conditions of the relevantposition.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amoving body operation management system comprising a moving bodyinformation database for storing at least operation information of eachmoving body and a crew information database for storing at leastoperation management information of each crew member of the moving body.

In this aspect, the crew information database may also store thequalification information for the moving body of each crew member andparticularly the qualification information for the moving body includingdriving license of each crew member.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amoving body operation management system comprising work instructioninformation generating unit for generating work instruction informationto provide instructions regarding work to be performed to a mobileterminal unit, a host unit comprising first transfer unit fortransferring the information including the work instruction informationto the mobile terminal unit, second transfer unit for receiving theinformation including the work instruction information transferred fromthe first transfer unit and a memory for storing the work instructioninformation. In this aspect, the second transfer unit transfersinformation to the host unit from the mobile terminal unit, while thefirst transfer unit receives the information transferred from the secondtransfer unit.

The first and second transfer units may be used for transmitting andreceiving, by radio, the necessary information to at least read or writethe information to or from the portable type memory medium in order totransfer the information including the work instruction information viathe portable type memory medium.

Moreover, in the moving body operation management system comprising ahost unit and one or a plurality of mobile terminals mounted in one ormore moving bodies for management of the information concerning theoperation of moving body, the host unit comprises a moving bodyinformation database for storing, for each moving body, the informationconcerning the moving body itself and operation information concerningoperation of the moving body; crew information database for storing, foreach crew member, the information concerning at least the crew of themoving body; an input unit for inputting at least the identificationcode of the crew; and discriminating unit for collating, based on theidentification code input from the input unit, the crew qualificationinformation of the moving body read from the moving body informationdatabase with a class of the moving body which will be driven by thecrew to discriminate, depending on the result of collation, whether thedriver of the crew can drive the relevant moving body.

In this aspect, moreover, the host unit further comprises an output unitfor outputting the work instruction information for instructing at leastthe work content of the crew utilizing the moving body, when thediscriminating unit discriminates the relevant crew has thequalification to drive the relevant moving body.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided aterminal unit comprising one or a plurality of sensors, which aremounted at respective areas to output the signals in accordance withconditions of mounting areas and input unit for inputting sensoroutputs. The terminal unit further comprises a first memory for storinginformation concerning condition of the moving body depending on sensoroutputs and a discriminating unit for discriminating the currentcondition of the moving body by referencing the first memory dependingon the sensor outputs.

According to another aspect of this invention, there is provided amoving body comprising engine, controller for controlling at least theengine to start or stop, a memory for storing the identification codeassigned to the moving body and an input unit for accepting an input ofthe identification code when the engine starts or stop, whereby tocontrol the engine to start or stop when the identification code storedin the memory and the identification code input from the input unit arematched as a result of collation by the controller.

In this aspect, the input unit accepts input of the identification codeof the crew of the moving body when the engine starts or stops and theengine is controlled to stop only when the identification code of thecrew inputted when the engine starts and the identification code of thecrew inputted when the engine stops are matched as a result of collatingby the controller.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a mobileterminal.

FIG. 2 shows another example of the mobile terminal.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a second embodiment of a mobileterminal.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a vehicleoperation management system of this invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating the first embodiment of the vehicleoperation management system.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating the first embodiment of the vehicleoperation management system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining detailed information of a driver'sdatabase.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating detailed information of a vehicledatabase.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of an ID card, which adriver carries (memory configuration of driver ID).

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating the memory configuration of a vehicleID as stored in a mobile terminal.

FIG. 11 is an external view of an example of a mobile terminal.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating internal components of a mobileterminal.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining an example of an IC card filemanagement method.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining procedures required before thevehicle leaves the office.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining the work instruction informationrecorded on the IC card.

FIG. 16 is an example of the structure of a vehicle ID file where aplurality of vehicle ID numbers.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining outline of the engine start/stopoperation of vehicle.

FIGS. 18A-18C are diagrams illustrating the processing proceduresincluding the engine start operation required before the vehicle leavesthe office when a wireless type mobile terminal is used.

FIG. 19 shows processing procedures for stopping the engine of thevehicle.

FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically illustrating the formats of thecollection instructing data and collected operation information.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a constitution of a work report filefor storing collection instructing data.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating the down-load procedures of collectioninstructing data from a mobile terminal to a computer.

FIG. 23A and FIG. 23B are diagrams illustrating the down-load proceduresof collection instructing data from the computer to the mobile terminalwhen a wireless type mobile terminal is used.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining the reason for changing over thecollection instructing data depending on the passing positions.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining a collected data file of the mobileterminal when changeover is executed for information collection.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating the processing procedures ofoperation information collection based on the collection instructingdata.

FIG. 27 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the presentinvention where a driver changes the vehicles during the duty time of aday.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of criterion fordetermining the type of work to be performed in this invention.

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining judgment for work contents from“beginning of work” to “ending of work” and method of recording the workperformed.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mobile terminalstoring map information.

FIG. 31 is a diagram illustrating the control of the mobile terminalshown in FIG. 30.

FIG. 32A and FIG. 32B are diagrams illustrating an example of daily workreports generated for each driver and each vehicle.

FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating an application example of the vehicleoperation management system to be applied to distribution and pickup ofgoods.

FIGS. 34A and 34B are diagrams illustrating an existing mobile terminal.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a first embodiment of a mobileterminal of the present invention. The mobile terminal may be mounted,for example, in each vehicle of a transportation company for the purposeof vehicle operation management.

FIG. 1 shows a mobile terminal 10 including an input unit 11 forinputting an identification code assigned to each driver, which isassigned to a vehicle; a memory 12 for storing the identification codeintrinsically assigned to each vehicle (or mobile terminal); a collator13 for collating the vehicle identification codes stored in the memorywith the vehicle identification codes input from the input unit 11; anda controller 14 for controlling the vehicle to start or stop the enginedepending on the result of collation in the collator 13. The details forcontrolling the starting or stopping of the engine will be explainedlater. Moreover, the controller 14 also controls operation of the mobileterminal 10.

FIG. 2 shows another example of a mobile terminal 20. The mobileterminal 20identification cut unit 21 from which various identificationcodes are input as in FIG. 1 as well as other pieces of vehicleoperation information. The input unit 21, for example, may be akeyboard, IC card reader or a radio communication controller.

A memory 22 in the mobile terminal 20 may be divided into a plurality ofregions such as a first region 221 and a second region 222. In the firstregion 221, the intrinsic pieces of identification information (ID) ofvehicles are stored. In the second region 222, the vehicle IDinformation inputted from the input unit 21 and the driver IDinformation are temporarily stored.

The collator 23 collates the vehicle ID information stored to in thefirst region 221 of the memory 22 with the vehicle ID information storedin the second region 222 of the memory 22 and outputs the result of thecollation.

The controller 24 controls the vehicle engine to start or stop,depending on the result of the collation of vehicle ID information bythe collator 23. Moreover, the controller 24 also controls operation ofthe mobile terminal 10.

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a second embodiment of a mobile terminal 30. Amobile terminal 30 includes an input unit 31 to which output signals ofthe sensors (not shown) mounted at various locations in the vehicle areinputted. Each sensor judges the condition of each sensor mounting areaand outputs an output signal depending on the judgment result. Themobile terminal 30 further includes a memory 33 including a first memoryregion 331 and a second memory region 332. The first memory region 331stores a condition of the output signal of each sensor and thecorresponding information indicating the conditions of the correspondingvehicle.

A discriminating unit 34 references the first memory region 331,depending on respective sensor output signals inputted to the input unit31, to ascertain the current condition of the vehicle. The informationindicating the vehicle conditions refers to, for example, theinformation indicating the operating condition of vehicle (start andstop of engine, unloading of goods, etc.).

The second memory region 332 stores information concerning theconditions of the vehicle discriminated or ascertained by thediscriminating unit 34. This information is generated, for example, atpredetermined time intervals or when generation thereof is instructed.The details of the discriminating unit 34 will be explained later.

The mobile terminal 30 further includes a position detecting unit 35 fordetecting the current position of the vehicle. As a method of detectingthe vehicle position, for example, there is a GPS (Global PositioningSystem). However, in this embodiment, the position detecting method isnot limited to the GPS and other methods may be used. The informationconcerning the current position of the vehicle detected by the positiondiscriminating unit 34 is stored, for example, in the second memoryregion 332 corresponding to the vehicle condition information at thistime. Storing of such corresponding information enables a crew later,for example, after the vehicle has returned to the office, to check thetype of work performed and where the work was performed.

The mobile terminal 30 further includes a card reader/writer 36 forwriting information into a medium such as IC card 37 loaded from theexternal side of the mobile terminal 10 and for reading information fromthe medium. Since the IC card 37 has a comparatively large memorycapacity, this IC card 37 may be used as the second memory region(instead of the second memory region 332) to store the informationconcerning the vehicle condition ascertained or discriminated by thediscriminating unit 34. The second memory region 332 may be provided inthe mobile terminal 30, but is not always required to be provided in themobile terminal 30 as discussed above.

An output unit 38 outputs various pieces of information to a driver. Themobile terminal 30 can discriminate or ascertain vehicle conditionsdepending on outputs of the sensors mounted at respective areas ofvehicle, but it is impossible in some cases to uniquely and accuratelydetect vehicle conditions only with sensor outputs. Under certaincircumstances, a message is outputted to a driver urging to input theinformation indicating the work performed and the current vehiclecondition. As the output unit 38, a loud speaker is used in FIG. 3 tooutput a voice message. However, a display, for example, may also beused to display various kinds of messages. Moreover, other devices,which can transfer a message to the driver, can also be used as theoutput unit 34.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a first embodiment of the vehicleoperation management system. This vehicle operation management systemincludes, for example, a computer 41 or other computing device installedas a host unit in the office and at least one mobile terminal 42. Thecomputer 41 includes a vehicle database 411 for storing the intrinsicinformation (vehicle number, load, etc.) of each vehicle and theinformation concerning the operating condition of each vehicle andreferred to hereinafter, from time to time, as “class of vehicle” or“vehicle classification information. The computer 41 also includes adriver database 412 for storing the pertinent information (name, kind ofdriving license, etc.) of each driver referred to hereinafter, from timeto time, as “class of driving license” work information” working for theoffice and the pertinent information regarding work to be performed byeach driver (date, work contents, etc.).

The computer 41 further includes a work instruction generating unit 413for generating work instruction information for instructing the driverof the types of work to be performed referred to hereinafter, from timeto time, as “work information”; and a transfer unit 414 for transferringthe generated work instruction information to a mobile terminal 42. Thetransfer unit 414 may be a radio communication controller, so that thework instruction information is transferred, by radio, to the mobileterminal 42. The transfer unit 414 may also be an IC card reader/writer,so that the work instruction information is written into the IC card,which is then inputted to the mobile terminal 42. In addition, thecomputer 41 is also provided with a control unit 415 for controllingeach apparatus. The computer 41 may also include an input unit 416 suchas a keyboard and/or one or more output units 417 such as a display unitand/or a printer for outputting various pieces of information, and aninput unit 416 for inputting various pieces of information.

The mobile terminal 42 includes a transfer unit 421 for receiving thework instruction information transferred from the computer 41. Thistransfer unit 421 may be a radio communication controller or an IC cardreader/writer. For example, when an IC card reader/writer is provided inthe computer 41, a corresponding IC card reader/writer is used in themobile terminal 42. An IC card is loaded into the IC card reader/writer,provided in the mobile terminal 42, to read the work instructionswritten in the memory of the IC card. If the transfer unit 414 is aradio communication controller, then the transfer unit 421 of the mobileterminal 42 is a radio communication controller.

The mobile terminal 42 further includes a memory 422 for storing thework instruction information transferred from the computer 41 by thetransfer units 414 and 421 of the computer 41 and mobile terminal 42.The mobile terminal 42 has a controller 423 for controlling theoperation of the mobile terminal 42. Moreover, the mobile terminal 42may be provided, as required, with an output unit 424 such as a displayunit or a loud speaker for outputting various pieces of information suchas work instruction information, and an input unit 425 such as akeyboard for inputting information.

The mobile terminal 42 as shown in FIG. 4 is provided with a part and/orthe entire part of each item installed in the mobile terminals 10, 20and 30 shown in FIGS. 1 to FIG. 3. Various functions may be given to amobile terminal 42 by adequately combining the items of the mobileterminals 10, 20, 30 and 42 shown in FIG. 1 to FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a vehicle operation management system(hereinafter referred to as a management system) to which this inventionis applied. As shown in FIG. 5, the management system of the embodimentincludes a host computer (hereinafter referred to as a computer or anoffice computer) 51 to be installed in the office, a terminal(hereinafter referred to as a mobile terminal) 52 to be installed ineach respective vehicle and an IC card 53 carried by a driver of eachvehicle.

The host computer 51 is provided with a driver database 511 for storingand administrating information including ID No., name, kind of drivinglicense and working conditions of each driver working for the office.The host computer 51 is further provided with a vehicle database 512 forstoring and administrating information including ID No., class ofvehicle, vehicle No. and operating conditions of the vehicles assignedto the office. In the office, the operating conditions of vehicles canbe detected by referencing the information stored in these databases 511and 512. In addition, an operation schedule of vehicles can be plannedas required and the period for vehicle maintenance can be checked.Moreover, since the work conditions of each driver can be checked, thelabor management of drivers becomes easier.

The mobile terminal 52 receives a work instruction information forinstructing work contents to be executed in a day given from the office(computer) 51 and sends the collected work report information bycollecting various pieces of work report information generated duringoperation of the vehicle. The computer 51 classifies the various piecesof work report information collected from the mobile terminal 52 foreach vehicle and driver and updates the vehicle database 512 and driverdatabase 511 depending on the information classified to output a dailyreport of work as required.

In this embodiment, there are provided two kinds of methods, wherein thework instruction information is sent to the mobile terminal or vehiclecomputer 52 from the host computer 51 or the work report information issent to the computer 51 from the mobile terminal 52. In one method,transfer of data is carried out via an IC card 53 assigned to eachdriver. In another method, radio communication is introduced between thecomputer 51 and mobile terminal 52.

In the case of transferring information using an IC card 53, the workinstruction information is written on the IC card 53 with an IC cardreader/writer (not shown) connected to the office computer or hostcomputer 51 and the information written on the IC card 53 is then readwith an IC card reader/writer (not shown) provided in the mobileterminal 52. Moreover, the work report information generated duringoperation of the vehicle is written on the IC card 53 with the IC cardreader/writer of the mobile terminal 52. This IC card 53 is insertedinto the IC card reader/writer provided in the office computer 51 tosave the work report information written on the same IC card 53. Thedetails of this operation will be explained later.

In this embodiment, an IC card 53 is used as an information transferunit, but other memory medium can also be used so long as it is aportable type memory medium. For example, a magnetic disk or a magneticcard may be used without relation to a type of memory medium.

In the method of communicating between the computer 51 and mobileterminal 52 by radio, a hand-held telephone set or other type of radiocommunication unit may be used between the computer 51 and mobileterminal 53. An antenna must be installed on a vehicle. Using the radiocommunication unit, the work instruction information and work reportinformation can be transmitted or received. If the work instructioncontents are changed during the course of vehicle operation, the changedwork instructions are transmitted or transferred to a vehicle computer52 from the office computer 51 for flexible response to a change in workinstructions. Moreover, the work report information generated in eachvehicle can be transmitted to the office on a real time basis.Therefore, the office immediately detects the work being performed suchas the current position of each vehicle. When traffic congestion occursor a distribution sequence is required to be changed, variousinstructions for changing vehicle operation route and distributionsequence can be transmitted immediately to a driver of each vehicle.Traffic conditions of a road can be estimated by checking the operatingcondition transferred from each vehicle, particularly the positions of avehicle with passage of time. With information transferred by radiobetween the computer 51 and mobile terminal 52, a driver can receive achange in work instructions without-returning to the office.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a vehicle operation management systemas an embodiment and a detailed diagram for explaining the operation ofthe mobile terminal while the vehicle is in operation. As shown in FIG.6, a vehicle 60 is provided with a mobile terminal 61. The mobileterminal 61 may be fixed to the vehicle 60 or removably mounted to thevehicle 60. The mobile terminal is connected with a GPS receiver 62, aradio communication unit 63 such as handheld telephone set and sensors64 mounted to various areas of vehicle 60. Moreover, the vehicle 60 isalso provided with a GPS antenna 621 for receiving the positioninformation transferred from the GPS satellite 69 and the GPS receiver62 detects and discriminates the current position of the vehicledepending on the received signal.

Moreover, the mobile terminal 61 is provided with a guidance displayunit 65 for displaying guidance information for transferring workinstructions to a driver and a microphone 66 used by the driver to inputby voice the work performed. Moreover, the mobile terminal 61 is alsoprovided with an IC card reader/writer (not illustrated) for loading anIC card 67 to be carried by a driver. Data communication is carried outthrough a radio communication unit such as a hand-held telephone set 63between the mobile terminal 61 and office computer 68 for transmissionof work instruction information, work report information and otherpieces of information.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining in detail the contents of a driverdatabase 70. Each driver working for the office is given the ID No. foridentifying individual drivers. Within the driver database, the driversworking for the office are managed using these ID numbers 73. In thedriver database 70, the information 71 concerning the drivers themselvesand corresponding information 72 concerning working conditions of eachdriver are stored.

As the driver information, the information including name of driver andclass of driving license carried by a driver is stored corresponding tothe ID number of each driver. The vehicle 60, which is driven by adriver, is restricted depending on the class of driving license carriedby the driver. Therefore, the class of driving license of each driver isrecorded in the driver database 70 so that the type or class of vehicle60 to be driven by each driver can be identified. The class of drivinglicense is used as the information for prohibiting a driver to drive thevehicle 60 of the class not corresponding to the driving license.

In the columns for storing work information 72, the date of working(driving) 721 and the ID number of vehicle 722 driven by the driver toperform the work are stored corresponding to the ID number of eachdriver. In FIG. 7, only the work instructions on the 31st of October isstored, for example, but the work information of each driver can bestored in the driver database 70 in units of month, year or anypredetermined term. The term for recording the work information is notparticularly restricted and the work information can be stored for theperiod required for the operation management.

For example, in FIG. 7, a driver given the ID number 1010 has the name“Hoshino” and the driver “Hoshino” has the license class to drive avehicle 60 for “large size for special use”. This driver information 81is stored in the driver database 70. The driver “Hoshino” drove thevehicle 60 having the ID number 1010 during the period from 9 AM to 3 PMon 31st of October.

When it is required to know the working conditions of each driver forthe purpose of labor management including the check of drivingconditions of drivers, the necessary information such as workingcondition of each driver can be outputted by retrieving the driverdatabase 70 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating details of the vehicle database 80.Each vehicle 60 assigned to the office is given an ID number. In thevehicle database 80, all vehicles 60 are administrated using their IDnumbers. The vehicle database 80 stores the vehicle computer information81 indicating a type of vehicle computer (mobile terminal) 61 mounted inthe vehicle 60, vehicle information 82 concerning the vehicle 60 itselfand operating information 83 concerning the operating condition of eachvehicle 60, corresponding to the ID number of each vehicle 60.

In the column for storing the vehicle computer information 81 concerningthe structure of mobile terminal 61, the vehicle computer information 81indicates a type of the mobile terminal 61 mounted in the vehicle. Forexample, a radio type mobile terminal 61 is mounted into the vehiclegiven the vehicle ID number 1010. This vehicle is capable oftransferring various pieces of information to the office by radio.Moreover, it can also be understood that a card type mobile terminal 61is mounted in the vehicle given the ID number 0101 and transfer of datato the vehicle computer 61 can be done using a medium such as an IC card63.

In addition, in the column 81 for storing the information concerning thestructure of mobile terminal 61, the information concerning instructionsfor collecting information is stored.

The mobile terminal 61 collects, during operation of vehicle 60, theinformation concerning the traveling distance of vehicle 60 and runningspeed at the collecting time. This information collection is executed ata preset time interval or each time when the vehicle 60 travels for apredetermined distance. An “instruction for collection” stored in thevehicle database 80 indicates a time interval and travelling distancefor collecting such vehicle operation information (work information).

For instance, for the vehicle 60 given the ID number 1010, collection ofwork information is carried out in every passage of 500 ms or in every1.0 m traveled. Here, the numerical data of 500 ms and 1.0 m has beenapplied conforming to the information collecting interval in theexisting method for collecting the information such as travelingdistance with a tachometer.

Moreover, for the vehicle 60 given the ID number 0101 collection ofinformation is carried out every 10 seconds or in every 100 m travelledby the vehicle. In the column of vehicle information 82 of the vehicledatabase 80, class of vehicle and vehicle number, etc. are stored. Inthe column of the operating information 83, the date and time ofoperation, travelling distance and other necessary information arestored. As explained above, other information including, for example,travelling route of vehicle and fuel consumption of vehicle can belisted. In FIG. 8, only the information of 31st of October is written asthe operating information but the operating information generated duringa month, a year or any other term may be stored as the term forrecording information in the driver database 80.

In FIG. 8, it is also recorded that the vehicle 60 having the ID number0101 is a large size vehicle given the vehicle number SYONAN-55-A-0001and this vehicle has traveled 500 km during its work on 31st of October.It is further recorded that the vehicle 60 having the ID number 1010 isa small size vehicle given the vehicle number SAGAMI-33-HA-0579 and thisvehicle has traveled 1300 km. Similar pieces of information are alsorecorded for the other vehicles 60. The operating conditions of eachvehicle 60 can be detected by retrieving vehicle database 80 to collectnecessary information such as operation information and necessity ofmaintenance. The vehicle's condition can be judged based on thecollected data.

For example, the vehicle 60 is judged as to whether maintenance work isrequired based on the traveling distance by reading the total travelingdistance thereof from the vehicle database 80. Moreover, the operatingcondition of each vehicle 60 can be retrieved from the vehicle database80 and it is possible to discuss a more effective operating schedulebased on the operating conditions of the vehicle.

As will be explained later, since the route travelled by the vehicle 60and the time required for driving each vehicle 60 are also recorded inthe vehicle database 80, the route of a vehicle 60 can also be discussedto realize more effective operation of the vehicle 60.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of the IC card 90 carried bya driver including a memory. In the vehicle operation management systemof this embodiment, an IC card 90 is given to each driver. When a drivertries to drive a vehicle 60, the driver is requested to insert the ICcard 90 into the IC card reader/writer of the mobile terminal 61. The IDnumber of the driver is decisively recorded in the IC card 90.Therefore, the driver, who is driving the vehicle 60, can be determinedby reading the driver ID number from the IC card 90.

As shown in FIG. 9, the memory of the IC card 90 is roughly classifiedinto the program area 91 and memory area 92. In the program area 91, aprogram for operating the IC card 90 is stored. The memory area 92 isfurther classified into a system area 93 and a file area 94. The systemarea 93 stores the intrinsic driver ID number 95. This driver ID number95 is given, as shown in FIG. 9, by a six digit numeral but the numberof digits can be selected freely.

The system area 93 is further provided with a file management area 96for storing file management information. The file management area 96 iscapable of storing information concerning file name, address of filearea for storing a file, size of file, length and size of each record,etc. Moreover, the file area 94 stores the work instruction informationand the information concerning work and operation collected by themobile terminal 61.

In the case of the existing contact type IC card, electrodes are exposedat the card surface. In the case of the work performed by the driver orcrew utilizing a vehicle 60, particularly the work for picking up ordistributing goods, a vehicle 60 is placed under the worst environmentalconditions. Therefore, if the contact type IC card is used for thevehicle 60 placed under the worst conditions, the IC card may be oftensubjected to undesirable conditions such as contamination of electrodesof IC card and breakdown of IC card itself due to water or staticelectricity. Therefore, it is not recommended to use the contact type ICcard.

In this embodiment, a non-contact type IC card 90 for transmitting orreceiving information by radio to or from the card reader/writer is usedas the IC card 90. The electrodes are not exposed at the surface of thenon-contact type IC card 90. Therefore, this non-contact type IC card 90is superior to the contact type IC card in the dust-proof andwater-proof characteristics. In other words, the non-contact type ICcard 90 is recommended as the IC card used for the vehicle operationmanagement system applied under the worst environmental conditions asexplained above. However, when the mobile terminal 61 is not used underworst environmental conditions, the existing contact type IC card may beused.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating a mobile terminal (vehicle computer)100. As already explained, the mobile terminal 100 is decisively giventhe intrinsic vehicle ID number. The interior of the mobile terminal(vehicle computer) 100 is roughly divided into a program area 101 and amemory area 102. In the program area 101, a program for operating themobile terminal 100 is stored.

The memory area 102 is further classified into a system area 103 and awork area 104. In the system area 103, the vehicle ID number 105explained above is stored, for example, in the form of 4 numericaldigits. The number of numerical digits in the ID number can be changedfreely, for example, and the actual number can be selected freely.Moreover, a work area program 106 is stored in the work area.

FIG. 11 is an external view illustrating an example of a mobileterminal. The mobile terminal 110 shown in FIG. 11 is an example of thecard type terminal providing the IC card reader/writer. In the frontsurface of the mobile terminal 110, an IC card slot 111 is provided andthe IC card carried by the driver is inserted into the mobile terminal110 therefrom. Moreover, the mobile terminal 110 is also provided with aconnector 113 for connecting and interfacing with a keypad 112. Thekeypad 112 shown in FIG. 11 is provided with a plurality of keys 114. Inthe keypad shown in FIG. 11, the numerical keys for inputting numeralsfrom 0 to 9, and three keys A, B and C are provided. Using these keys114, various kinds of numerals and various pieces of information can beinputted as required.

A display 115 is also provided in the keypad 112. Various pieces ofinformation are displayed as required on this display 115 in order todisplay work instruction information for the driver and a message forurging the driver to input work performed or work to be performed isalso displayed on this display 115. A message for checking theinformation inputted from the keypad 112 is also displayed. The detailsof the use of the keypad 112 are explained later.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a mobile terminal 120. The mobileterminal 120 includes a CPU or main controller 121, which is composed,for example, of a microprocessor to control operations of the mobileterminal 120. The mobile terminal 120 further includes a display controlunit 122 for controlling the drive of the display 122a; barcode readercontrol unit 123 for controlling operations of the barcode reader 123awhen the barcode reader 123a is connected to the mobile terminal 120;voice control unit 124 for controlling operations of a loud speaker 124aor microphone 124b provided on the mobile terminal 124 in which thespeaker 124a is used for notifying the driver of information such asguidance with an audible voice, while the microphone 124b is used by thedriver for inputting an audible instruction to the mobile terminal 120;and a GPS driver (receiver) 125 connected with GPS antenna 125a. The GPSreceiver 125 is provided for collecting the current position includinglatitude and longitude of a vehicle 60 based on the signal received fromthe satellite 69 and the current time. The details of operations usingGPS will be explained later.

In the ROM 126, a program for controlling the mobile terminal 120 andthe vehicle ID number are stored. A card reader/writer 127 is providedfor loading of the IC card 127a as explained previously to readinformation stored in the IC card 127a and write information generatedin the mobile terminal 120 to the IC card 127a. A line controller 128 isconnected, for example, with a hand-held telephone set or MCA radio forexchange of information between the mobile terminal 120 and officecomputer (not shown) through these devices. A sensor input/output unit129 into which various signals from sensors, such as a key on/offsignals for detecting the on/off states of vehicle key and an outputsignal from the engine rotation sensor for detecting the rotatingcondition of engine, are inputted. A RAM 126a is provided for temporarystorage of information.

A CPU 121 judges conditions of various points of the vehicle dependingon the signals from sensors received via the sensor input/output unit129. The details of the vehicle conditions based on the sensor outputwill be explained later.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining an example of the file managementmemory and method of an IC card 130. In the IC card 130, the memory area135 is divided into the system area 135a and file area 135b. FIG. 13explains the memory management of the IC card 130. In this embodiment, aradio (non-contact) type card is used as the IC card 130. Therefore, theinformation exchange between the host computer (such as an officecomputer) or mobile terminal 131, and the IC card 130 is executed viaradio communication units 132, 133 respectively. The radio communicationunits use a low level signal for transmission and reception of data.

A file access unit 134 of the host computer 131, for example, accessesthe file area 135b of the IC card 130 to read and write the data basedon the information recorded in the system area 135a of the IC card 130.The file access unit 134 accesses the memory area 135 of the IC card 130based on the instruction in the application program 136.

The IC card 130 is further provided with a memory access unit 137 forreading and writing the data to and from the memory area 135 of the cardbased on the physical address. As shown in FIG. 13, the memory area 135is divided into the system area 135a and file area 135b. The system area135a is further divided into a plurality of files to store theinformation about length and size of record together with file name,file storing address and size of file, etc.

The file area 135b is divided corresponding to respective filesindicated in the system area 135a. Each file is further divided into aplurality of records and each record stores data. For the access to thememory area 135, access is first made to the system area 135a to accessthe file area 135b corresponding to the system area 135a. Access is madeto the file area 135b in units of record.

Next, a vehicle operation management method utilizing this vehicleoperation management system will be explained.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the procedures required before thevehicle 60 leaves the office. A mobile terminal or vehicle computer 143utilizing the IC card 141 is mounted in the vehicle 60. Before a vehicle60 leaves the office, (1) a driver loads his own IC card 141 into thecard reader/writer of the office computer 142; (2) the office computer142 reads the driver ID number recorded in the IC card 141; (3) theoffice computer 142 retrieves the driver database based on the driver IDnumber obtained to read a class of driving license corresponding to thedriver ID number obtained; (4) next, the office computer 142 retrievesthe vehicle database based on the vehicle ID number of the vehicle to beused by the driver on that day to read the class of vehicle 60 in orderto check the qualification of driver by collating the class of vehicle60 with the retrieved class of driving license. When the class ofvehicle does not match the class of driving license as a result ofqualification check, the office computer 142, without entry of anyinformation, issues a message indicating occurrence of an error andoutputs the IC card 141. Therefore, a driver, who cannot drive a vehicle60 with his driving license, is prevented from driving the vehicle 60.

When the class of vehicle 60 matches the class of driving license as aresult of a qualification check, the office computer 142 writes the workinstruction information corresponding to the driver ID number obtainedfrom memory into the IC card 141 and thereafter outputs the IC card 141.

The work instruction information of each driver on that day ispreviously registered into the office computer 142 and the workinstruction information of each driver can be read based on the driverID number.

(5) The IC card 141 outputted from the office computer 142 is insertedby the driver into the mobile terminal (vehicle computer) 143. (6) Whenthe IC card 141 is inserted, the mobile terminal 143 reads the driver IDnumber and vehicle ID number from the IC card 141 and (7) compares thevehicle ID number read from the IC card 141 with the vehicle ID numberstored in the mobile terminal 143. When these ID numbers are matched,the mobile terminal 143 starts ignition of engine. If these ID numbersare not matched, the mobile terminal 143 judges that the driver isdifferent from the driver scheduled on that day and issues an errormessage. In any case, (8) the IC card 141 is output after a comparisonof the driver ID numbers.

Since there was a check as to whether the class of driving license ofdriver corresponds to the class of vehicle 60, as will be explainedlater, when the IC card 141 is inserted into the card reader/writer ofthe mobile terminal 143 and ignition of engine starts, the qualificationcheck for driver and vehicle 60 can be omitted because the workinstruction information is written into the IC card 141. In this case,it is possible that the driver ID number is read from the IC card 141when the card is inserted to the card reader/writer of the officecomputer 142 and the IC card 141 is outputted after the work instructioninformation corresponding to the obtained driver ID number is writtenonto the IC card 141.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining the work instruction informationrecorded on the IC card 141. The vehicle ID file 151, work instructionfile 152 and work report file 153 are set in the file area 150 of the ICcard 141. The ID number of the vehicle 60 driven by the driver iswritten in the vehicle ID file 151 by the office computer 142. Moreover,the work to be performed that day by the driver is written in the workinstruction file 152 by the office computer 141. The work instructioninformation, maybe a message instructing, for example, “Distribute goodsto the point A to the point B at 0: 0 (time) of 0, 0 (date and month).The work instruction information stored in the IC card 141 is notlimited to only one instruction or task. When a plurality of tasks arerequired in a single driving route, required work instructioninformation is completely written in the work instruction file 152.

As will be explained later, the work report file 153 is used forrecording the information such as traveling distance, travel route andthe time used which have been obtained as a result of work. Moreover,the work report file 153 also stores the collection instruction data forindicating the time interval for collecting information explained above.The collection instruction data is written in the IC card 141 by theoffice computer 142 together with the work instruction information.

In addition, in some cases, a driver changes vehicles during a day. Inview of solving this problem, a plurality of vehicle ID numbers can bestored in the vehicle ID file 161a as shown in FIG. 16. A plurality ofinstructions corresponding to vehicle ID numbers can be stored in workinstruction file 161b. A plurality of work reports corresponding tovehicle ID numbers can be stored in work report file 161c. The workinstruction file name 162 and work report file name 163 corresponding toeach vehicle are respectively stored corresponding to the respectivevehicle ID number 164. The driver inserts the IC card 141 outputted fromthe office computer 142 to the mobile terminal 143 (card reader/writerconnected to the mobile terminal) of the vehicle to be driven. In thisembodiment, engine start and stop of a vehicle are controlled from theIC card 141 carried by the driver. Operations for starting the enginewill be explained hereunder.

FIG. 17 is a diagram for explaining an outline of the engine start andstop operations of a vehicle. Before starting the engine, the workinstructing information is sent, together with the vehicle ID number, tothe mobile terminal 172 from the office (computer) 171 via the IC card173 or depending on the instruction 174 by radio. Engine start or stopis controlled with insertion of the IC card 173. When the IC card 173 onwhich the vehicle ID number is written as a part of the work instructinginformation by the computer 171, the mobile terminal 172a mounted on thevehicle 170a reads, with the sequence indicated in FIG. 14, the driverID number and vehicle ID number recorded in the IC card 173. When adriver is scheduled to change a plurality of vehicles as shown in FIG.16, the vehicle ID numbers and several pieces of work instructinginformation corresponding to a plurality of vehicles are stored in theIC card 173. In this case, the mobile terminal 172a confirms whether thevehicle ID number on the IC card 173 matches with the vehicle ID numberstored in the memory of the mobile terminal 172a by referencing therespective vehicle ID numbers.

Next, the vehicle ID number read from the IC card 173 is collated withthe vehicle ID number stored in the mobile terminal. When there is nomatch, the mobile terminal 172a determines that the driver having therelevant IC card 173 is not scheduled to drive the relevant vehicle 170aand outputs the IC card after issuing an error message.

On the other hand, when the vehicle ID number stored in the IC card 173matches the vehicle ID number stored in the mobile terminal 172a, themobile terminal 172a starts the ignition of the engine. Here, it is alsopossible to output the IC card 173 from the mobile terminal 172a whenmatching of ID numbers is determined.

Moreover, upon ignition of the engine, the mobile terminal 172a readsthe work instructing information and collection instructing data writtenin the IC card 173 to write the work instructing information into thework instruction file of the mobile terminal 172a and also stores thecollection instructing data to the predetermined area of the work reportfile. Thereafter, the mobile terminal 172a collects various pieces ofinformation with the interval instructed here by referencing thecollection instructing data stored in the work report file.

With the constitution explained above, incorrect use of vehicles of theoffice by the driver not scheduled or theft of vehicles by a third partycan be prevented. Thereby, management of the vehicles can be realizedmore effectively.

In the case of the vehicle 170b where the radio mobile terminal 172b ismounted, the vehicle ID number inputted to the mobile terminal 172b withthe IC card 173 is transmitted by radio from the office computer 171together with the work instructing information. In this case, the mobileterminal 172b selectively receives the information including the vehicleID number, which is the same as its vehicle ID number. When the radiomobile terminal 172b is used, the IC card 173 is also inserted thereto.

Moreover, it is also possible to send the work instructing informationand collection instructing data to the mobile terminal 172b from thecomputer 171 via the IC card 173.

FIG. 18A is a diagram indicating the processing sequence before thevehicle leaves the office including the engine start operation when theradio mobile terminal is used. In this case, information exchange isperformed by radio between the mobile terminal (vehicle computer) 181and office computer 182. For execution of security check of driver, theIC card 180 carried by the driver is inserted into the mobile terminal181 in the example of FIG. 18A at the time of starting the engine.

The numeral given in the parentheses corresponds to the numerals givenin FIG. 18A. For starting the engine, a driver inserts the IC card 180storing the driver ID number into the card reader/writer of the mobileterminal 181 (1). The mobile terminal 181 reads the driver ID numberfrom the inserted IC card 180 (2) and outputs the IC card 180 (3).Subsequently, the mobile terminal 181 transmits by radio the inputrequest signal together with the driver ID number and vehicle ID numberto the office computer 182 in order to request the office computer 182to input the work instructing information of that day based on thedriver ID number obtained and the vehicle ID number (4, 5).

An example of the input request signal is shown in FIG. 18B. The inputrequest signal includes “Function” 183, driver ID number 184 and vehicleID number 185. In the input request signal, a sign indicating that thissignal is the input request signal is written in the column of the“Function” information and the input request signal is transmitted byradio to the office computer 182. Moreover, the driver ID number readfrom the IC card 180 is transmitted and the vehicle ID number is alsotransmitted.

The office computer 182 refers to the “Function” column 183 of the inputrequest signal transmitted from the mobile terminal 181 anddiscriminates that this signal is the work instructing information inputrequest signal. On the basis of the driver ID number and vehicle IDnumber transmitted, the office computer 182 retrieves the driverdatabase and vehicle database (6). The computer 182 reads, from thedriver database, the class of driving license of the driver having thetransmitted ID number and also reads, from the vehicle database, theclass of vehicle corresponding to the transmitted vehicle ID number.Moreover, the office computer 182 checks the qualification of thedriver, who has loaded the IC card to the mobile terminal 181 based onthe obtained class of driving license and the vehicle class information.

If the class of the driving license of driver does not match the classof vehicle, the office computer 182 generates an error and issuestherefrom an error message to the mobile terminal 181. On the otherhand, when the class of driving license of the driver matches the classof vehicle, the office computer 182 determines that the result ofqualification check for driver is normal. In this case, the computer 181sends by radio the work instructing information corresponding to thetransmitted driver ID number to the mobile terminal 181 (7). The workinstructing information is previously inputted to the office computer182.

An example of the work instructing information is shown in FIG. 18C(response). The information transmitted into the mobile terminal 181from the office computer 182 is composed of “Function” information 186,driver ID number 187, vehicle ID number 188 and work instructinginformation 189. In this case, a sign indicating that this signalincludes the work instructing information is written in the “Function”column. Moreover, it is also possible to send the collection instructinginformation to the “Function”0 column in addition to the workinstructing information. The mobile terminal 181 receives the workinstructing information from the office computer 182 and stores thisinformation into the predetermined area of memory and then starts theengine (8).

The engine start sequence is similar to that explained with reference toFIG. 14. Here, it is also possible that the mobile terminal 181 collatesthe driver ID number and vehicle ID number returned from the officecomputer 182 with those stored therein to discriminate whether theresponse signal received from the office computer 181 is directedthereto or not depending on matching or mismatching of such ID numbers.

Moreover, when the collection instructing data is not added to thetransmitting information, to which the work instructing information isadded, and therefore not transmitted to the mobile terminal 181 from theoffice computer 182, the mobile terminal 181 issues a request, beforethe engine starts, to the office computer 181 to transmit the collectioninstructing data to the office computer 181. In this case, theinformation in the format corresponding to FIG. 18C is transmitted fromthe computer 181, but the information indicating that the addedinformation is the collection instructing data is written into the“Function” column and the collection instructing data is transmitted inplace of the work instructing information.

FIG. 19 shows a processing sequence for stopping the engine. In the caseof this embodiment, the processing sequence for stopping the engine isbasically similar in the case of the card type terminal and radio typeterminal.

The processing sequence will be explained with reference to FIG. 19. Thenumerals given in the parentheses correspond to those in FIG. 19. Forstopping the engine, a driver inserts his or her IC card 191 into themobile terminal or vehicle computer 192 (1). The mobile terminal 192reads the driver ID number from the IC card 191 (2). Subsequently, themobile terminal 192 collates the driver ID number read at the time ofstarting the engine with the driver ID number read now (3). The driverID number read at the time of engine start is recorded in the mobileterminal 192 and is collated with the driver ID number read from the ICcard 191. When two driver ID numbers are matched, the mobile terminal192 determines the driver, who has inserted the IC card 191, is thequalified driver and then begins stopping the engine.

On the other hand, when two driver ID numbers do not match, there is ahigh probability that the driver who has started the engine is differentfrom the driver who is trying to stop the engine. Therefore, in thiscase, the mobile terminal 191 does not allow the driver to stop theengine. In addition, the mobile terminal 192 outputs the IC card 191after collation of two driver ID numbers (4).

With the control as explained above, only the qualified driver can stopthe engine of the vehicle. If the vehicle is stolen while the vehicle isused (particularly when the engine is activated), the engine can nolonger be stopped, which inconveniences a thief who is stealing thevehicle. When the engine is to be stopped, it is also possible to recordthe work report information generated during operation of vehicle whichis already recorded in the mobile terminal 192 into the IC card 191.

Next, collection of the operating information such as various pieces ofwork report information generated during operation of the vehicle willbe explained hereunder. When operation of a vehicle is started, themobile terminal 192 collects various pieces of operating information togenerate the work report information. As the operating information to becollected by the mobile terminal 192, work starting/ending times,traveling (moving) distance of vehicle, vehicle speed and route, etc.can be listed.

FIG. 20 is a diagram schematically illustrating the collectioninstructing data and format of the collected operating information. Thework report information is composed of the collecting data 202. Thecollecting data 202 is collected by the sensor 200 based on theconditions indicated by the collection instructing data 201.

In an example of FIG. 20, the collection instructing data indicates thetime interval for collecting information such as vehicle speed,traveling distance (hereinafter referred to only as distance), currentposition of vehicle (hereinafter referred to only as position). Here,vehicle speed is collected at predetermined time intervals, such asevery passage of 10 minutes. Similarly, distance is collected in everytime passage of 15 minutes, for example, and position in every timepassage of 20 minutes, for example.

This time interval can be set freely. When course collection ofinformation is necessary, the time interval can be set shorter than thatin the example of FIG. 20. When rough collection of information isenough, the time interval for collection of information can be longer.In the case of the existing tachometer, information such as vehiclespeed is collected at every 500 ms. Therefore, matching with theoperating information collected by the existing tachometer can beobtained by setting the time interval for collection of informationindicated by the collection instructing data 201 to 500 ms as in thecase of the tachometer.

FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating a work report file 210 for storing thecollection instructing data.

The collection instructing data 211 is stored in the work report file210 preset in the memory area of the mobile terminal 181. In the case ofFIG. 21, collection instructing data 211 includes the latitude/longitudeinformation 212 and time interval 213 for collecting the operatinginformation such as vehicle speed, distance and position are recorded.The latitude/longitude information 212 will be explained later.Moreover, as shown in a vehicle database of FIG. 8, the collection timeinterval and collection distance are set as the collection instructingdata 211.

Collection of information may be executed based on the time intervaland/or moving distance. In FIG. 21, information has been collected basedonly on the time interval.

When both the time interval and moving distance are introduced forcollection of information, priority of information collection is givento one condition, for example, to the time interval and the othercondition, for example, the moving distance is considered as thesecondary condition for the information collection. For instance, whenmoving distance of a vehicle is very small for a passage of time due totraffic congestion, etc., it is meaningless, in some cases, to collectinformation based on the instructed time interval. Therefore, when thevehicle does not move for the distance specified by the collectioninstructing data even after the predetermined time has passed,information is collected when the vehicle has moved for thepredetermined distance specified by the collection instructing data 211.

On the other hand, various pieces of operating information collectedbased on the collection instructing data 211 are recorded, together withthe time when the information has been collected, in the column of thestoring area of the collecting data. In the example of FIG. 20, afterthe work has been started at 8:40 AM, vehicle speed is collected at 8:50after passage of 10 minutes. In this case, the speed “30k/h” isrecorded. At 8:55, after passage of 15 minutes from the start of work,the moving distance of vehicle is collected and the distance “12k” isrecorded with the collecting time. As explained above, each piece ofinformation collected in the time interval indicated by the collectioninstructing data 211 is recorded in the collecting data storing area ofthe work report file 210.

Next, an information collecting method will then be explained hereunder.Vehicle speed and moving distance of vehicle are collected through asensor for measuring vehicle speed. A sensor for measuring vehicle speedis attached to a vehicle. The vehicle speed sensor generates and outputsthe predetermined number of pulses for each rotation thereof. JIS(Japanese Industrial Standards) prescribes that the vehicle speed sensorspeed should be attached to the rotating shaft which makes 637 rpm atthe speed of 60 km/h. The vehicle speed and moving distance can becomputed on the basis of this specification.

Traveling distance can be computed by the following equation.Traveling distance (km)=total number of pulses/(637×number of pulses)  (1)

Here, “number of pulses” means the number of pulses generated when thevehicle speed sensor makes a turn.

Meanwhile, vehicle speed can be computed by the following equation.Vehicle speed (km/h)=Number of pulses/sec. ×3600/(637×number of pulses)  (2)

The vehicle speed and moving distance computed as explained above arerecorded together with the information collecting time in the storingarea of collecting data.

The current position of the vehicle can be obtained utilizing GPS(Global Positioning System). As is already explained above, the mobileterminal is provided with GPS driver for receiving a signal from GPSsatellites. The GPS system can obtain the latitude and longitude basedon the signals received from three GPS satellites. The mobile terminalused in this system detects and verifies the current position of vehicleutilizing such GPS system.

Moreover, various pieces of operating information are recorded at thecollecting times. Here, it is also possible to collect the current timewith a timer provided in the mobile terminal and this structure is mostsimple. However, since an error is generated to a considerable extent inthe timer mounted in each mobile terminal, each timer probably has adifferent time display in the same time. Therefore, matching of the timeinformation is lost between mobile terminals and accurate timeinformation cannot be collected.

Particularly, the working time is computer based on the work startingtime and work ending time. Here, the work starting time may beconsidered, for example, at the time when the vehicle leaves the officeand the work ending time at the time when the vehicle has returned tothe office. If such work starting time and work ending time cannot becollected, this probably results in various problems for computation ofwage and introduction of labor management.

The mobile terminal in this embodiment utilizes the GPS also forcollection of time information in order to prevent generation of variousproblems explained above. Since the time information is included in theGPS signal, the accurate time information can be collected, withoutdepending on the timer installed in the mobile terminal, by collectingthe time information from the GPS signal. The operating informationcollected from each vehicle can be managed at each united time byrecording in pair the time information collected as explained above withthe operating information. The operating information collected asexplained above is stored in the work report file preset in the memoryarea of the mobile terminal.

FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating the down-loading procedures ofcollection instructing data 211 to the computer 220 from the mobileterminal (vehicle computer) 222. In this case, the computer 220down-loads the collection instructing data 211 to the mobile terminal(vehicle computer) 222 using an IC card 221.

The collection instructing data 211 is stored, together with therespective vehicle ID numbers, in the vehicle database 223 preset in theoffice computer 220. As shown in FIG. 22, the collection instructingdata 211, vehicle speed collecting time interval, moving distancecollecting time interval and position information collecting timeinterval, etc. are set as explained previously. Moreover, in FIG. 22,the number of pulses is identical to the “number of pulses” indicated bythe equation (1) or (2).

The collection instructing data recorded in the vehicle database 223 iswritten into the IC card 221 inserted into the computer 220 with a cardoutput unit 224 before the driver leaves the office (1). When the driverinserts the IC card 221 into the mobile terminal 222 before he or sheleaves the office, the card input unit 225 of the mobile terminal 222reads the collection instructing data 211 from the IC card 221 andstores the collection instructing data 211 into the work report file 226(2). Thereafter, the mobile terminal 222 collects operating information(3) by collecting, for example, the vehicle speed from the vehicle speedsensor 228 based on the collection instructing data 226a stored in thework report file and stores the result as the collecting data into thecollecting data storing area 227 together with the time information (4).

FIG. 23A is a diagram illustrating down-loading procedures of thecollection instructing data to the radio type mobile terminal (vehiclecomputer) 231 from the office computer 230. In this case, a radio outputunit 232 is provided in the office computer 220 to transmit informationto the radio input unit of the mobile terminal (vehicle computer) 231.From the office computer 230, a message shown in FIG. 23B istransmitted.

A message transmitted from the office computer 230 is composed of“function” information 233 and collection instructing data 234. Thecollection instructing data is composed of “latitude/longitude”information 234a and vehicle speed/moving distance/current positioncollecting time interval 234b.

The mobile terminal 231 receives the message directed to itself from theradio input unit 235 and sets the collection instructing data 236a tothe collector 236 of the work report file. Thereafter, depending on thecondition indicated in the preset collection instruction data 211,various pieces of operating information are collected, for example,using the vehicle speed sensor 237 and the collecting data is thenstored in the collecting data storing area 238 of the work report file.The collecting procedure itself is similar to that shown in FIG. 22.

The latitude/longitude information is recorded in the collectioninstructing data 211 together with the collecting time interval.Moreover, while the vehicle is being, operated, the mobile terminal 231recognizes its own latitude and longitude using GPS system at thepredetermined time or in every movement of predetermined distance. Inthis embodiment, when the vehicle position matches the latitude andlongitude indicated by the collection instructing data 211 (or thevehicle is located within a certain range from the predetermined point),the collection instructing data 211 is replaced using the collectedlatitude and longitude.

Here, the office position is indicated, for example, by latitude xx andlongitude yy in FIG. 21. After the vehicle has left the office, thecollection instructing data 211 is set to the mobile terminal 231 sothat the collection instructing data 211a including a pair of latitudeand longitude of “xx, yy” is collected, that is, vehicle speed iscollected with time interval of 10 minutes, moving distance with timeinterval of 15 minutes and vehicle position with time interval of 20minutes.

When the vehicle has reached the position indicated by latitude aa andlongitude bb (or in the vicinity of above position), the mobile terminal231 replaces the collection instructing data 211b, wherein thecollection instructing time interval is stored in pair of thelatitude/longitude “aa, bb” instructing, in the case of FIG. 21,collection of vehicle speed with time interval of 20 minutes, movingdistance with time interval of 20 minutes and vehicle position with timeinterval of 20 minutes, with the collection instructing data 211b whichhas been stored in the collector 236.

FIG. 24 is a diagram for explaining the reason for changing over thecollection instructing data (collecting time interval) depending on theposition of the vehicle. FIG. 24 indicates an example for changing thecollecting time interval depending on the day, while FIG. 24 indicatesan example for changing the collecting time depending on the positionarrived. Changeover of the collection instructing data 211 explainedabove corresponds to that of FIG. 24 and the changeover of thecollecting time interval depending on a day is basically identical.

In the case of FIG. 24, the collection time interval for vehicle speedis set to 500 ms on 0, 0 (date), but the vehicle speed is collected inevery 1000 ms (one second) on X,X (date).

In comparison with such collection time intervals, it is obvious thatmore detailed collection of the operating information can be realized on0, 0 (date). However, if traffic congestion occurs, moving and stoppingof the vehicle are repeated more frequently and vehicle speed changesmore precisely. Therefore, it may be necessary to collect theinformation at a more detailed time interval. In addition, since vehiclespeed is assumed to be changed to a smaller extent under the lowertraffic condition, the collection time interval can be set longer. Alonger collection time interval is effective for reduction in amount ofinformation to be collected.

Since traffic congestion can be assumed by statistics, the informationcollection time interval is set short on the day where trafficcongestion may be assumed or is set longer on the day where the trafficcongestion is relatively small, to alleviate a load of the informationcollection processing and to reduce the amount of information to berecorded.

In the case of changing the collection time interval depending on a dayas explained above, it is enough that the collection instructing data tobe written on the IC card 241 carried by the driver is set to thepredetermined value with the computer 240 before the vehicle leaves theoffice. Moreover, it is also possible that the collection instructingdata to be recorded in the vehicle database is set previously for eachday and the corresponding collection instructing data of that day isread from the vehicle database.

FIG. 24 also shows an example in which the vehicle speed is collectedevery 60 sec when the vehicle is traveling on the freeway, and every1000 ms (one second) when the vehicle is traveling on an ordinary road.

When the vehicle is traveling on the expressway, since the vehicle speedis rather stabilized, any problem may not occur even when the vehiclespeed collection time interval is set comparatively longer. On the otherhand, when the vehicle is traveling on an ordinary road, the frequencyof starting and stopping the vehicle becomes higher and a degree ofchange in the vehicle speed and moving distance becomes large.Therefore, the vehicle speed information must be collected at shortertime intervals when the vehicle is traveling on an ordinary road.

As explained above, it is recommended to change the collection intervalof operating information depending on the place where the vehicle istraveling or the operating condition of the vehicle.

For instance, in the case of picking-up or distributing goods, since thevehicle operation schedule is previously determined, the route of thevehicle is also previously known. Therefore, the section of theexpressway can also be known previously. Therefore, in the case of thisembodiment, the position information (for example, exist and entrance offreeway) where the previously known collection instructing data ischanged over is set in the collection instructing data. When the factthat the vehicle has passed the relevant position (or in the vicinitythereof) is determined using the GPS system, the collection instructingdata is changed at that time. In the case of an example of FIG. 21,information can be collected under the collecting conditionscorresponding to discriminated respective conditions of expressway andordinary road by setting the position information such as toll gate ofexpressway to the latitude aa and longitude bb.

Here, it should be noted that the toll gate of expressway has the widthof several meters to several tens of meters. Therefore, the vehicle doesnot pass through the point having the specified latitude and longitude.Moreover, even if it is assumed that the vehicle passes the specifiedpoint, it is difficult depending on the route of the vehicle to preventan error from being generated in the passing position. Therefore,replacement of the collection instructing data can be done moreaccurately by giving a certain width to the latitude/longitudeinformation given as the collection instructing data. When the vehiclehas passed the range mentioned above, the vehicle has passed theparticular point.

For example, for the toll gate of an expressway, the latitude/longitudeof the center area of toll gate is set as the collection instructingdata and the latitude/longitude of the point indicating the circlepassing the position separated by 10 meters from the center of toll gateis also set. When the vehicle passes the range within this circle, thevehicle has passed the toll gate. In this case, the radius of the circlecan be set freely. Moreover, the latitude/longitude informationindicating the circle position is set to the value which does notcomplicate the position determining process in the mobile terminal. Inaddition, when the vehicle has passed the range inside the circle, thevehicle has passed the specified point in this embodiment according tothe system. When the vehicle has passed the area within the particularsquare or the point on a certain straight line, the vehicle has passedthe specified point according to the system.

Changeover of the collection instructing data is not limited only tochangeover for expressway and ordinary road. It is also possible tochange over the collection instructing data for the road generatingtraffic congestion and the comparatively vacant road. The criterion forchangeover of collection instructing data can be selected freely.Moreover, since the collection instructing data can be transmitted asrequired by radio communication to the mobile terminal from the office,the point for changing over the collection instructing data may be setto the mobile terminal based on the instruction from the office, basedon the conditions of the vehicle.

FIG. 25 is a diagram for explaining a collecting data file 253 of themobile terminal 250 when information collection instructing data 255 ischanged over and particularly indicates a format of the informationstored in the collecting data file 253. As shown in FIG. 25, the mobileterminal (vehicle computer) 250 receives the signal from the satellite251 and detects current position thereof with the position detectingunit 257 (3). Moreover, information such as vehicle speed and movingdistance of vehicle is collected with the collector 256 based on thevehicle speed sensor 252 (1).

In the former half of the collecting data file 253, the vehicle speed,moving distance, vehicle position 253a obtained after the vehicle hasleft at 8:40 AM the point of latitude xx and longitude yy are recorded(2). In the case of the former half of FIG. 25, the vehicle speed iscollected in every 10 minutes, while the moving distance in every 15minutes and vehicle position in every 20 minutes.

Here, when the vehicle has passed the point of latitude aa and longitudebb just at 9:00 AM, the collection instructing data 254 of the formatshown in FIG. 21 is changed over to the collection instructing data 255to collect thereafter the vehicle speed in every 10 minutes, movingdistance in every 20 minutes and vehicle position in every 16 minutes.

As explained above, the mobile terminal 250 collects the operatinginformation based on the newly set collection instructing data 255 (5)to generate the collected work report information. As the data collectedafter 9:00 AM, the vehicle speed, moving distance, vehicle position 253bis recorded (6).

When the vehicle has returned to the office, a driver inserts the ICcard to the office computer (not shown). The office computer accessesthe work report file of the IC card to read the recorded collectingdata. On the basis of the collecting data read out, the office computerrespectively updates the work contents recorded in the driver databaseand vehicle database to reflect the work contents of that day. Moreover,in the case of radio type mobile terminal, the mobile terminal underoperation can transmit the collecting data to the office computer eachtime when the collecting data is generated, or in every predeterminedtime or as required.

FIG. 26 is a flowchart for explaining the operating informationcollecting sequence based on the collection instructing data.

When the vehicle leaves the office, the mobile terminal refers toposition information of the work report file (S1) and obtains thecurrent position of vehicle using GPS to judge whether the vehicle hasreached or passed the position indicated in the position information(S2). When several pieces of position information are set in the workreport file, respective position information is collated with thecurrent position of vehicle.

When the vehicle is judged to have reached the position indicated by theposition information, the mobile terminal replaces the currentcollection instructing data with the collection instructing data storedin a pair of the position information as the new collection instructingdata (S2′).

In the step S2, when the vehicle is judged not to have reached theposition indicated by the position information or after the collectioninstructing data is replaced in the step S2′, the mobile terminal refersto the collection instructing data in the work report file to judgewhether the time specified by the collection instructing data has passedor not from the preceding collection of information (S3). Whencollection of several pieces of information is instructed, passage oftime from the preceding collection of information is discriminated forrespective information items. In the step S3, when the specified timehas not passed, processing returns to the step S1.

Meanwhile, when passage of the specified time is judged in the step S3,whether the vehicle has moved or not exceeding the distance instructedby the collection instructing data is judged (S4). When the vehicle isjudged, in the step S4, to have moved exceeding the distance instructed,the operating information of the item corresponding to the time intervalinstructed by the collection instructing data is collected (S5). On theother hand, when the vehicle is judged not have moved the distanceinstructed in the step S4, operating information of the specified itemis collected after the vehicle has moved the distance instructed by thecollection instructing data (S5′).

Subsequently, the current position of the vehicle when the informationis collected and the current time are collected using GPS (S6).Thereafter, the collected operating information is stored in the memoryarea together with the current position of vehicle and current timecollected in the step S6. With repetition of this processing, variouspieces of operating information generated during operation of vehiclecan be collected automatically.

FIG. 27 is a diagram for explaining the case where the driver changesthe vehicle during the duty time within a day. In this case it isassumed that the vehicles having the vehicle ID numbers 1010 and 0101are used. The work report file is set respectively for the vehicle IDnumbers and the work report information of the vehicle having the IDnumber 1010 and that of the vehicle having the ID number 0101 are storedin the work report file of the IC card corresponding to the vehicle IDnumber.

When the vehicles have returned to the office, the computer reads thework report information corresponding to respective vehicle ID numbersfrom the IC cards when the drivers insert the IC cards into the computerand updates the work contents in the column corresponding to therespective ID numbers of vehicle database.

FIG. 28 is a diagram illustrating an example of criterion for judgingthe work contents in this invention. In this example, sensors are fittedat various sections of the vehicle. The mobile terminal recognizesconditions of various sections of vehicle depending on the signalsoutputted from these sensors and also judges what kind of work is beingexecuted. A table of FIG. 28 stores information concerning the vehicleconditions depending on the on/off state of the sensor output. Moreover,in the column of remarks, the condition for discrimination or class ofinformation to be further inputted are described. The horizontal line(-) in the table of FIG. 28 indicates that the on/off state of thesensor output is not used for judgement.

The key-on signal is used for judging whether the engine key of vehicleis loaded or not. For example, when the key on/off sensor turns on, thevehicle is ready to be started. Therefore, the vehicle is in thestarting condition. When the key-on/off sensor turns off, the vehicle isin the ending condition and the vehicle engine is in the stoppedcondition. In this case, it is possible that returning a vehicle to theoffice is added as the condition for “ending of work”.

In the case of this embodiment, since the engine start or stop iscontrolled on the basis of the IC card carried by the driver, the ICcard becomes engine key. Therefore, it is also allowed to judge thekey-on/off state depending on whether the IC card is inserted into themobile terminal or not.

The engine rotation sensor (“Engine” in FIG. 28) judges rotation of theengine and the mobile terminal judges whether the engine is started orstopped depending on the signal from the engine rotation sensor.Moreover, since the vehicle speed sensor is fitted to the vehicle asexplained above, the vehicle speed and moving distance can be obtainedfrom the signal generated therefrom (“Vehicle speed/distance” in FIG.28). When the engine rotation sensor turns on and the vehicle is judgedto have moved for the predetermined distance based on the vehicle speedsensor, the mobile terminal determines that the vehicle has started towork based on the table of FIG. 28. Moreover, when the engine sensor isin the off state, the engine is stopped. However, only the engine isstopped and it is difficult to determine in what condition the vehiclestops.

For helping judgement for the reason of “Stopping condition of vehicle”,sensors are respectively attached to the driver's doors, goods chamberdoors and seat-belt. The sensors for detecting opening or closingconditions of doors are fitted to the driver's doors and goods chamberdoors (“Driver's doors” and “Goods chamber doors” in FIG. 28. When thedriver is getting on or off the vehicle, the driver's door is opened orclosed. Moreover, for loading or unloading goods, the goods chamber dooris opened or closed. In addition, the seat-belt sensor is fitted to theseat-belt for detecting the fastening condition of the seat belt (“Seatbelt” in FIG. 28). When the driver leaves the vehicle, the seat beltsensor is turned off and when the driver is sitting on the driver's seatwith the seat belt fastened, the seat belt sensor is in the on state.

When only the engine rotation sensor is in the off state, the mobileterminal judges the vehicle is in the “Stop” condition. In this case,output condition of the driver's door sensor is not considered. When thedriver's door sensor is turned off (driver's door is opened) and theseat belt sensor is also turned off under the condition that the enginerotation sensor is in the off state, the mobile terminal judges that thevehicle has reached any position. Moreover, the mobile terminal outputs,under this condition, a message urging the driver to input workcontents. When the work contents are inputted, the mobile terminaljudges that the work inputted has been executed. Here, as the workcontents in FIG. 28, for example, “Rest”, “Check”, “Fueling” may belisted.

When the engine rotation sensor is turned off and the goods chamber doorsensor is also turned off (goods chamber door is opened), the mobileterminal judges that the goods are either loaded or unloaded. In thiscase, since it is also probable that the other crew is actually loadingor unloading goods in place of the driver, outputs of the driver's doorsensor and seat belt sensor are not used for judging of “loading andunloading of goods”. These outputs may naturally be used for judgementof “loading and unloading of goods”.

The mobile terminal totally judges the work being carried out based onthe output signals from these sensors. A method of judging the workcontents will then be explained hereunder.

FIG. 29 is a diagram for explaining discriminating work contents from“Beginning off-work” to “Ending of work” and a method of recording workcontents (work performed). When the initialized IC card is inserted intothe mobile terminal, the mobile terminal judges that the vehicle is inthe condition, “Beginning of work” and records the “Beginning of work”together with the time of judgment as work report information.

The mobile terminal judges whether the engine is started or notdepending on the engine sensor and also judges the vehicle is in the“Departure” condition, upon judgement depending on the vehicle speedsensor that the vehicle has run the predetermined distance, for example,100 m. In this case, the mobile terminal recognizes the current latitudeand longitude of the vehicle using GPS and records the informationindicating “Departure” together with the collected latitude/longitudeand current time as the work report information.

When engine stop is detected by the engine sensor, the mobile terminaljudges the vehicle is in the “Stop” condition. When the fact that theseat belt is unfastened is detected by the seat belt sensor, and thefact that the driver's door is opened is detected by the sensor fittedto the door, the mobile terminal judges the vehicle has “arrived” at anyposition. In this case, the mobile terminal must judge that the vehiclehas reached the target position or the driver has stopped the vehicle totake a rest. Stop of vehicle because it has arrived at the targetposition can be judged by previously setting the latitude and longitudeinformation of the target position into the mobile terminal because theposition information can be collected with GPS. However, it is alsoprobable that the driver takes a rest while the vehicle is stopped atthe same place after arriving at the target position and performing thework. In such a case, collection of the position information by GPS isinsufficient and it is also necessary to detect the times for ending thework and starting the rest.

Therefore, in the case of this embodiment, the work contents arediscriminated as explained hereunder. When the fact that the goodschamber door is opened for the period longer than the predeterminedtime, for example, one minutes or longer by the goods chamber doorsensor, the mobile terminal judges the goods chamber door has beenopened for the “loading or unloading of goods”. In this case, the mobileterminal obtains the current latitude/longitude of the vehicle with GPSand records the information indicating the “loading or unloading ofgoods” as the work report information together with the current time andlatitude/longitude information.

Moreover, the mobile terminal urges the driver to input, when thevehicle has stopped, the reason why the vehicle has stopped to themobile terminal by audible voice or display. For example, when thedriver wants to take a rest, the driver inputs the information to take arest. For the input of information, for example, the keypad may be usedor the reason for stopping the vehicle may be inputted with an audiblevoice input.

As explained previously, a microphone to accept voice input is alsoprovided in the mobile terminal. Moreover, it is preferable that theinformation indicating the reason for stopping the vehicle isregistered, as the voice information, to the mobile terminal or the ICcard carried by the IC card. When the vehicle has stopped, the driverinputs the reason of stoppage with the voice input through themicrophone. For example, when the drive wants to take a rest, he issuesthe word “Rest”.

The mobile terminal collates the information of voice input by thedriver with the voice information previously registered to judge thereason of stoppage inputted by the driver based on the collation andthen records the reason for stoppage together with thelatitude/longitude information collected by GPS as the work reportinformation.

The reasons for stoppage of vehicle, checking of vehicle, fueling,washing of vehicle and others may be considered and the reason forstoppage of vehicle can be confirmed later by inputting such reasons byvoice input or from the keypad. In the case of inputting the reasonusing the keypad, a plurality of display screens and corresponding keysare provided as shown in FIG. 11. Therefore, the mobile terminaldisplays on the screen the items such as “Rest”, “Check” and “Fueling”,etc. The driver operates the key corresponding to the display of theitem to be inputted by referring to the item displayed on the screen.Thereby, the reason for stoppage of vehicle may be inputted to themobile terminal in place of the voice input.

Meanwhile, when the vehicle travels on the toll road such as anexpressway, it is requested to record the toll or the section traveled.For this purpose, the latitude/longitude information of the tolls ofexpressway are previously recorded to the mobile terminal. Moreover, itis also possible to record, as required, the road names and toll gatenames. Whether the vehicle has passed the toll gate of expressway can bedetermined depending on the result of detection of the vehicle positionby GPS.

As explained above, when the vehicle has passed the entrance gate of theexpressway, the name of this entrance gate is recorded together with thecurrent time as a part of the work report information.

Moreover, the mobile terminal is also provided with an expressway tollfile in which tolls between gates of expressway are recorded. The mobileterminal computes the tolls of expressway and records as the work reportinformation by referencing the expressway toll file based on theentrance and exit gates of expressway through which the vehicle haspassed. For the section through which the vehicle passes for the firsttime, the toll may not be recorded, in some cases, in the expresswaytoll file. In this case, it is impossible for the mobile terminal tocompute the toll even by retrieving the expressway toll file.

Therefore, the mobile terminal requests, with voice input or display,the driver to manually input the toll of expressway. The toll inputtedby the driver responding to such request is stored together with therunning section of expressway into the work report instructing file.Simultaneously, on the basis of the entrance and exit gates throughwhich the vehicle has passed and the toll inputted, the mobile terminalupdates the expressway toll file by adding next toll thereto as thepreparation for the subsequent traveling on the expressway. The resultis also sent to the office computer together with the work reportinformation. Therefore, this result can also be reflected on theexpressway toll file for the other mobile terminals.

Here, for the operations of vehicles, it is requested that driversobserve the speed limit. Therefore, when it is found that the detectedvehicle speed is exceeding the limit speed, an alarm is issued to thedriver. However, the speed limit is different depending on the class ofroads (expressway, ordinary road, etc.) and the speed limit is oftendifferent depending on the places on the same road.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an embodiment of the mobile terminalfor overcoming such a situation. The mobile terminal is similar to themobile terminal shown in FIG. 12 and the explanation of the elements ofthe mobile terminal shown in FIG. 30 is omitted here.

In the mobile terminal 300 of FIG. 30, an electronic map 301 storingelectronically map information is connected to the map informationreader 301a. The electronic map information is recorded, for example, ina CD-ROM, IC card, etc. Moreover, a map information reader 301a forreading the map information stored in the electronic map memory isconnected to the main controller 121. As the map information reader301a, for example, a CD-ROM player or IC card reader, etc. may be used.These can be selected depending on the medium on which the mapinformation is stored.

Here, the speed limit is often different depending on the class of roadand place of road. Therefore, the speed limits in the respective roadsare recorded together with the map information in the mobile terminal ofFIG. 30. Moreover, as the additional information, the positioninformation of exit gates of expressway and position information oftarget positions for the picking up or delivery of goods are alsorecorded in the map information.

Moreover, as is already explained above, the mobile terminal collects,during the operation of the vehicle, the vehicle speed and position inthe predetermined time interval. Accordingly, the mobile terminal ofFIG. 30 judges whether the vehicle is running at the speed lower thanthe speed limit by utilizing these pieces of information.

As shown in FIG. 31, the controller 302 is roughly classified into acontroller 1 (302a), controller 2 (302b) and controller 3 (302c).Correspondence between the speed limit and vehicle speed is executed inthe controller 1. Each time when the sensors output the vehicle speedand vehicle position, the speed limit information of each road, gateinformation of expressway and target position information are read fromthe map information. The information corresponding to the nearestposition is preferably read depending on the current position ofvehicle. Each piece of information read from the map information isselected by a selector and thereby the necessary information is sent toeach controller.

The information necessary for determining the speed limit is sent to thecontroller 1. As this information, at least the information concerningthe current speed of the vehicle and speed information (speed limit) ofeach road are necessary. The controller 1 receives the speed limitinformation read from the electronic map based on the current positionof vehicle and compares the speed limit of the road on which the vehicleis traveling with the current vehicle speed.

In the case of FIG. 31, it can be recognized that the speed limit of theroad on which the vehicle is running is 80 km/h. With an output of thevehicle speed sensor, it is recognized that the vehicle is traveling atthe speed of 90 km/h. As a result of a comparison between the speedlimit and running speed, the controller 1 judges that it is dangerousbecause the vehicle is traveling at the speed exceeding t he speedlimit.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 31, the controller 1 displays a messageurging the driver to control the vehicle speed and simultaneously issuesa voice message, “You are exceeding the speed limit”, for example, fromthe speaker. It is preferable to issue a voice message to urge thedriver to control the speed because the driver is not required to movehis eyes to the display. This message is continuously issued until thevehicle speed becomes lower than the speed limit. It is now possible tourge the driver to take care not to drive the vehicle at the speedexceeding the speed limit, realizing the more detailed safetymanagement.

The information to judge whether the vehicle has passed the gate of theexpressway is sent to the controller 2. At least the current position ofvehicle and gate information of the expressway are necessary to makethis determination. The controller 2 judges whether the vehicle haspassed the gate of the expressway on the basis of the cur rent positionof vehicle obtained by GPS and the gate information of expressway readfrom the electronic map.

When the vehicle is judged to have passe d the gate of the expressway,the controller 2 records the name of that gate. In the case of FIG. 31,the fact that the vehicle has passed the “TOMEI-KAWASAKI” gate and“TOMEI-ATSUGI” gate of the TOMEI expressway is recorded in thecontroller 2. When the vehicle enters the TOMEI expressway from the“TOMEI-KAWASAKI” gate, the controller 2 stores this fact and displays amessage of “Having entered TOMEI-KAWASAKI of TOMEI expressway” on thedisplay screen. When the vehicle has passed the “TOMEI-ATSUGI” gate, thecontroller 2 recognizes that the vehicle has got out of the expresswayfrom the “TOMEI-ATSUGI” gate and displays a message of “Having got outof TOMEI expressway from ATSUGI gate” on the display screen.

Simultaneously, the controller 2 computes the toll o f the expresswayfrom the information about the two gates, which the vehicle h as passed.The toll can be computed by referencing the table in which the tollsbetween gates are respectively recorded as explained previously. Thecontroller 2 displays the toll as “Toll =V 130011 on the display screenand writes the data including the name of gate to enter the expressway,the name of gate to got out of the expressway a nd toll in the memoryarea.

Thereby, the driver is now freed from the work to manually input theinformation concerning the name of gate having passed and toll into themobile terminal, which eliminates input error. Moreover, since themobile terminal computes and records the toll, a dishonest request bythe driver for toll of expressway, which the vehicle does not travel canbe prevented.

The controller 3 executes the processing based on the target positioninformation. The controller 3 retrieves, depending on the vehicleposition obtained by GPS, a distribution list recording the target pointnearest the current position of vehicle and goods to be distributedthereto from the electronic map information. The controller 31 displayssuch a result on the display screen to display the name of customer asthe target point, name of goods and number of goods to be distributed tothe driver.

Thereby, when the vehicle has reached the target point, the driver isfreed from input of the name of target point to the mobile terminal andit becomes possible to notify the driver t hat the vehicle is comingclose to the next target point. Moreover, since the informationconcerning goods is previously recorded in the mobile terminal, when thevehicle is coming close to the target point, the mobile terminal canautomatically display both target point and goods to be distributed incombination, eliminating such distribution error that the goods areerroneously distributed.

When the IC card is removed from the mobile terminal after the engine isstopped, the mobile terminal detects the fact from a sensor output andwhen the vehicle has returned to the office, the mobile terminal judgesthe vehicle is in the “Ending of work” condition using GPS.

In the IC card exhausted from the mobile terminal after the “Ending ofwork” condition, the work report information collected from the mobileterminal during the traveling of the vehicle is stored. This informationis sent to the office computer for renewal of contents of the vehicledatabase and driver database depending on the information transmitted.

Here, it is also preferable that the respective work report informationis temporarily stored, during the running of the vehicle, within themobile terminal. When the driver inserts again the IC card into themobile terminal for the engine stop processing, the work reportinformation stored in the mobile terminal is down-loaded to the IC card.

FIG. 32A and FIG. 32B are diagrams illustrating an example of the workdaily report generated for each driver and vehicle. In this figure, FIG.32A is a personal daily report, while FIG. 32B is a vehicle dailyreport. In this embodiment, since the driver database and vehicledatabase are prepared in the office computer, the personal and vehicledaily reports storing the personal work contents and vehicle operatingcondition can be outputted very easily.

In the case of personal daily report, the time schedule of each driverwho has driven the vehicle is outputted for each vehicle. In an exampleof FIG. 32A, the driver “Hoshino” has driven the large size vehiclehaving the ID number “1010” from 9:00 to 11:00. Moreover, the samedriver has driven the small size vehicle having the ID number “010111from 12:00 to 14:00 and again the large size vehicle having the IDnumber 11101011 from 15:00 to 17:00. The driving conditions of eachdriver can be confirmed by outputting such personal daily report foreach driver.

As explained above, since the personal daily report outputs the vehicle,which the driver has driven and the time schedule of driving, thepersonal working condition can be detected easily. As is also explainedabove, since the personal daily report outputs the data depending on theinformation recorded in the driver database, the personal daily reportcan easily provide an output. On the other hand, the vehicle dailyreport outputs the time schedule of vehicle together with the name ofdriver having driven the same vehicle.

FIG. 32B shows an example of output of the vehicle daily reportconcerning the large size vehicle having ID number 1010. This vehiclehas been driven by the driver “Hoshino” having the driver ID number“000001” from 9:00 to 11:00. Thereafter, it has been driven by thedriver “Sato” having the driver ID number “000002” from 11:00 to 13:00;by the driver “Yoshinaga” having the driver ID number “1000003” from13:00 to 15:00; and finally driven again by the driver “Hoshino” from15:00 to 17:00.

The operating condition of each vehicle can be detected easily byoutputting such a daily report of each vehicle. On the occasion ofoutputting such a daily report for each driver and vehicle, the driverID number or vehicle ID number for outputting the daily report isinputted to the office computer. Responding to such input, the computerretrieves the driver database and vehicle database to edit the requiredwork report information in the form of the daily report and then providethe printed output thereof.

In this example, the daily report having edited the works of a day hasbeen explained but it is of course possible to output the work contentsduring a month, year or desired period. Moreover, the items to b eoutputted in th e daily report are not limited to the example of FIG. 31and the necessary items can be outputted.

FIG. 33 is a diagram illustrating an application example of the vehicleoperation management system explained above for picking up ordistribution of goods.

The term “Field office” (hereinafter referred to as office) correspondsto the office in above explanation. The arriving and leaving informationis fetched by the office computer when a driver operates employee card(IC card) when a driver arrives at or leaves the office. A database forstoring the working data is provided in the office. The arriving andleaving information fetched by the employee card is stored in thisdatabase.

Moreover, the computer generates an arriving/leaving management table onthe basis of the information stored in the working database, enablingthe reference to know, as required, the working condition of eachdriver. In addition, inquiry for the arriving/leaving condition fromeach driver can be accepted by referencing the working database.

The “operation management system” (hereinafter referred to as managementsystem) corresponds to the “office computer” explained above and is usedfor vehicle operation management. The management system is connectedwith a plurality of terminals by LAN. In addition, the office isprovided with the vehicle database.

When the vehicle is leaving the office, driving of vehicle by the driveris started by generating an operation card recording the workinstructing information (corresponding to the IC card to be carried bythe driver explained above) and inserting the operation card into themobile terminal by the driver.

After the driving is started, messages of fixed format indicatingoccurrence of irregular event, which is generated, for example, when thevehicle is traveling on the road other than the predetermined route orwhen the vehicle is traveling dangerously at a speed exceeding the speedlimit, messages issued under the normal condition and times when thevehicle leaves a customer shop for the picking up or distribution ofgoods are exchanged between the office and vehicle.

Here, the work instructing information includes the vehicle operationroute. Therefore, the mobile terminal confirms the current route of thevehicle and predetermined route by receiving GPS information and issuesan alarm, when the vehicle is traveling the road other than thepredetermined route, to the driver or notifies, to the office, a messageindicating that the vehicle is traveling the route other than thepredetermined route.

Moreover, the work instructing information also includes a workscheduling diagram recording the time schedule of works. Therefore, themobile terminal checks the time when the vehicle has actually arrived ata customer shop and also collates the arriving time with the scheduledarriving time recorded on the work scheduling diagram to confirm whetherthe vehicle is operated as specified in the scheduling diagram or not.If an irregular event occurs, for example, when the arriving time isdifferent to a large extent from the scheduled arriving time, the mobileterminal notifies the difference to the office.

A customer shop is also capable of installing an apparatus forcommunicating with the mobile terminal. It is now possible to inform thecustomer that vehicle is approaching customer's shop by issuing a signalfrom the mobile terminal when the vehicle is coming close to thecustomer shop. In addition, if the arrival at the customer shop of thevehicle is delayed from the scheduled time or preceded due to trafficcondition and situation of goods distribution, the probability of changeof arrival time can be transmitted to the customer by sending a messagesuggesting such change of arrival time to a customer apparatus from themobile terminal.

When the vehicle has returned to the office completing the driving, thedriver inserts the operation card into the operation management systeminstalled in the office. Thereby, the information including the workcontents of that day can be collected and provided to the operationmanagement system from the card. The collected information is stored inthe vehicle database (or in the driver database).

Moreover, the office is further provided with a “vehicle movementmanagement system” for movement management of each vehicle.communication is carried out by radio between the office and vehiclesand the current position of vehicle can easily be detected in the officeside by sequentially sending the information indicating the currentposition of vehicle to the office from the mobile terminal.

The office is further provided with a map database storing the mapinformation of respective areas. The movement management system displayssuperimposed position information received from each vehicle and mapinformation stored in the map database. With such a superimposeddisplay, the current position of vehicle can be detected easily even inthe office.

As the map information to be displayed on the display screen, theoptical one for display of vehicle position must be selected dependingon the current position of vehicle received (latitude/longitude). Inaddition, the movement of each vehicle can be surveyed by, storing themovement of each vehicle into the database (for example, vehicledatabase) for storing operation achievement, etc.

The subsequent survey of movement of each vehicle is very useful forvehicle operation management because the travel route of the vehicle canbe reviewed and an effective distribution route can be determined.

Moreover, since a message can be sent to the vehicle from the office byradio communication, if an emergency occurs, an instruction foroperation management can be transmitted to the specified vehicle. Inthis case, in order to specify the vehicle, a method, for example, theID number of the vehicle to be specified is added to the message and themobile terminal confirms the vehicle ID number transmitted, can beemployed.

Furthermore, the traffic condition of road can also be detecteddepending on the movement of each vehicle. Therefore, it is alsopossible, as required, that the change of operation route anddistribution sequence can be transmitted to each vehicle from theoffice.

1. A mobile terminal for a moving body, comprising: a memory storing afirst identification number identifying an individual utilizing themoving body and a second identification number identifying the movingbody; a collator collating an externally inputted user identificationnumber and moving body identification number with the identificationnumbers stored in said memory; and a control unit starting and stoppingsaid moving body when the collator determines that the first and thesecond identification numbers stored in the memory are the same as theexternally inputted user and moving body identification numbers,respectively.
 2. A mobile terminal for a moving body, comprising: afirst memory storing an identification number identifying the mobileterminal; a second memory storing an externally inputted vehicleidentification number and a driver identification number, inputted whenthe engine of the moving body is started; a collator collating thedriver identification number inputted by the driver with the driveridentification number stored in said second memory; and a control unitcontrolling the moving body to stop the engine of the moving body if thecollator determines that the driver identification number stored in thesecond memory is the same as the driver identification number inputtedby the driver when the driver stops the moving body from moving.
 3. Amobile terminal for a mechanical moving body, comprising: a positiondetecting unit detecting a current position of the mechanical movingbody; a transfer unit receiving work instructing information, includinginformation related to a destination of the mechanical moving body,which is externally transferred to instruct an individual utilizing themechanical moving body about the work to be executed; a control unitextracting the work instructing information from the transfer unit inwhich the mobile terminal is located; a memory storing the workinstructing information extracted by said control unit; and a displayunit displaying the work instruction stored in the memory and therebyinstructing the individual to perform the work specified by the workinstruction information.
 4. The A mobile terminal as set forth in claim3 for a moving body, comprising: a transfer unit receiving workinstructing information, including information related to a destination,which is externally transferred to instruct an individual utilizing themoving body about the work to be executed; a control unit extracting thework instructing information from the transfer unit in which the mobileterminal is located; a memory storing the work instructing informationextracted by said control unit; and a display unit displaying the workinstruction stored in the memory and thereby instructing the individualto perform the work specified by the work instruction information,wherein: said work instructing information includes a moving bodyidentification, and the mobile terminal compares a receivedidentification and an identification stored in said memory, and storesreceived work instructing information to said memory when theidentification match.
 5. A mobile terminal for a moving body,comprising: at least one sensor, mounted in on the moving body, foroutputting signals indicative of the conditions of the moving body; afirst memory storing a table, the table including relationships betweenwork to be performed by an individual utilizing the moving body andoutput signals from the sensor; a discriminating unit determining thework the individual made that are stored in the table in said memory;and a position detecting unit detecting a current position of a movingbody; wherein the information concerning the work determined by saiddiscriminating unit is stored in a second memory together with theinformation concerning the current position of the moving body detectedby said position detecting unit.
 6. The mobile terminal as set forth inclaim 5, further comprising a second memory for storing the informationconcerning conditions of a moving body determined by said discriminatingunit.
 7. The mobile terminal as set forth in claim 6, furthercomprising: a position detecting unit detecting a current position of amoving body, wherein the information concerning conditions of the movingbody determined by said discriminating unit is stored in said secondmemory together with the information concerning the current position ofthe moving body detected by said position detecting unit.
 8. The mobileterminal as set forth in claim 5, further comprising a transfer unittransferring, to a device external to the mobile terminal, theinformation concerning conditions of the moving body determined by saiddiscriminating unit.
 9. A mobile terminal for a moving body comprising:at least one sensor, mounted in the moving body, outputting signalsindicative of the conditions of the moving body; a memory storing atable, the table including a relationship between an output signal fromthe sensor and corresponding conditions of the moving body and/or workto be performed by an individual utilizing the moving body; adiscriminating unit determining conditions of the moving body based oncontents stored in said memory by referencing the table in said memory;and an output unit outputting, when said discrimination unit judges thatthe condition of the moving body cannot be determined uniquely dependingon said output signals, a message urging a driver of the moving body toinput into the mobile terminal the condition of the moving body at thattime and/or contents of work to be performed using the moving body. 10.A mobile terminal for a moving body, comprising: a collector collectingmoving body operating information including moving body speed and movingdistance of the moving body; a memory storing a time interval forcollecting said moving body operating information by said collector; anda discriminating unit discriminating the current position of the movingbody, wherein said memory stores, in a pair, the time intervalinformation for collecting said collecting information and theinformation concerning a position interval for collecting saidcollection information, and wherein said collector collects, when saiddiscriminating unit determines the moving body has reached the positioncorresponding to the position information stored in said memory, and/orthe time interval for collecting said collection information hasexpired.
 11. A mobile terminal for a moving body, comprising: a firstmemory storing information concerning entrance or exit of an expressway;a discriminating unit determining a currert position of the moving bodyby collating the current position of the moving body with theentrance/exit information of the expressway stored ins aid in said firstmemory; and a second memory storing the information of the entrances orexits of the expressway determined from the determining by saiddiscriminating unit.
 12. The mobile terminal according to claim 11,wherein the first memory stores information concerning tolls betweenentrances and exits of an expressway; the discriminating unit determinesthe toll of the section of expressway traveled by the moving body byreferencing said first memory; and the second memory stores the tollinformation determined by the discriminating unit with entrance/exitinformation where the moving body passed.
 13. A mobile terminal for amoving body comprising: a position detecting unit detecting a currentposition of the moving body; a memory storing speed limits of routestogether with position information in which said moving conditions arepreviously established; a sensor detecting moving speed of the movingbody; a collator reading a speed limit corresponding to the currentposition of the moving body determined by said position detecting unitfrom said memory and collating the speed limit read from said memorywith the current speed of the moving body detected by said sensor; and acontrol unit outputting a message to an individual in the moving bodywhen the current speed of the moving body is found, as a result ofcollation by said collating means, not to correspond to the speed limitat the current position.
 14. A moving body operation management systemfor controlling information relating to the operation of at least onevehicle, comprising: a vehicle information database storing a vehicleclass of each vehicle; a driver information database storing a drivinglicense class of each driver of a vehicle; and a unit collating thevehicle class of each vehicle and the driving license class of eachdriver to generate work instruction information to control the at leastone vehicle.
 15. The moving body operation management system set forthin claim 14, wherein said driving license class database stores drivingqualification information of each driver.
 16. The moving body operationmanagement system set forth in claim 15, wherein the moving body drivingqualification information of each driver includes the class of drivinglicense carried by each driver.
 17. A moving body operation managementsystem having a host unit and at least one mobile terminal mounted on amoving body, wherein: said host unit comprises: a work instructiongenerating unit generating work instruction information of work to beperformed, and a first transfer unit transferring the work instructioninformation to each said mobile terminal, and each said mobile terminalcomprises: a second transfer unit receiving the work instructioninformation transferred from said first transfer unit, a controllergenerating work report information when the work to be performed isdone, a position detecting unit detecting current position of the movingbody, a second transfer unit receiving the work instruction informationtransferred from said first transfer unit, and transferring work reportinformation and position of the moving body to said host unit; a memorystoring the work instruction information and the work reportinformation, and a display displaying the work instruction informationand thereby instructing the individual to perform the work specified bythe work instruction information, wherein said first transfer unitreceives work report information from said second transfer unit.
 18. Themoving body operation management system as set forth in claim 17,wherein: said second transfer unit transfers work report information tosaid host unit from said mobile terminal; and said first transfer unitreceives work report information transferred from said second transferunit.
 19. The moving body operation management system as set forth inclaim 17, wherein said first and second transfer units are used totransmit and receive work instructing information and work reportedinformation by radio.
 20. The moving body operation management system asset forth in claim 17, wherein said first and second transfer unitscomprise reading/writing units reading information from a portablememory unit or writing information to the portable memory unit, the workinstruction information and work report information being transferredbetween said host unit and said mobile terminal through said portablememory unit.
 21. A moving body operation management system having a hostunit and at least one mobile terminal mounted on a moving body of aplurality of moving bodies for management of information relating tooperations of the moving bodies, wherein said host unit comprises: amoving body information database storing information identifying a classof each moving body of the plurality of moving bodies and correspondingoperating information concerning operations of each moving body; adriver information database storing an identification number of eachdriver and information concerning a driving license class of each driverproviding authorization to drive a respective class of moving bodies; aninput unit into which at least the identification number of the driveris input; and a discriminating unit collating, based on eachidentification number input into said input unit, information concerningthe corresponding driver, as read from the driver information database,with a class of the moving bodies, read from the moving body informationdatabase, and determining the authorization of the corresponding driverto drive a moving body of the class.
 22. The moving body operationmanagement system as set forth in claim 21, wherein said host unitfurther comprises an output unit outputting, when said discriminatingunit determines the qualification of the driver, the work instructinginformation to inform the driver of the work to be performed utilizingthe moving body.
 23. A moving body, comprising: at least one sensormounted to respective areas to output signals corresponding toconditions of mounting areas; a terminal providing an input unit towhich sensor outputs are inputted; a position detecting unit detecting acurrent position of the moving body; a first memory storing informationconcerning conditions of the moving body depending on sensor outputs; adiscriminating unit determining the current conditions of the movingbody by referencing said first memory depending on said sensor outputs;and a second memory storing the current conditions of the moving bodywith information concerning the position of the moving body where thecurrent condition of the moving body is determined.
 24. A moving body,comprising: an engine; a control unit controlling at least start andstop conditions of said engine; and a memory storing the identificationnumber given to the moving body in advance; wherein said control unitcollates the identification number stored in said memory with theidentification number inputted from said input unit, and controls theengine to start and stop when both identification numbers are equal. 25.A moving body as set forth in claim 24, where in said input unit receives input of the identification number of the driver who drives the movingbody for starting or stopping said engine and said control unit collatesthe driver identification number inputted for starting the engine withthe driver identification number inputted for stopping the engine andcontrols the engine to stop when both identification numbers are equal.26. A method for managing at least one moving body having a mobileterminal including a memory, comprising: storing an identificationnumber identifying the mobile terminal in the memory; collating anexternally inputted identification number with the identification numberstored in the memory; and starting or stopping said moving body when theidentification number stored in the memory is the same as the externallyinputted identification number.
 27. A method for managing a moving bodyhaving a mobile terminal mounted on the moving body and including amemory, comprising: transmitting work instruction information from ahost unit to the mobile terminal, the work instructing informationindicating work to be performed by an individual utilizing the movingbody; storing the work instruction information in the memory; sensingoperating conditions of the moving body using sensors and storing theoperating conditions in the memory; and transmitting the operatingconditions from the mobile terminal to the host unit, such that the hostunit detects, from the transmitted operating conditions, the workperformed by the individual.
 28. A mobile terminal for a moving body,comprising: a memory storing an identification number identifying anindividual utilizing the moving body; a collator collating an externallyinputted user identification number with the identification numberstored in said memory; and a control unit starting and stopping saidmoving body when the collator determines that the identification numberstored in the memory is the same as the externally inputted useridentification number.
 29. A mobile terminal for a moving body,comprising: a memory storing an externally inputted driveridentification number, inputted when the engine of the moving body isstarted; a collator collating the driver identification number inputtedby the driver with the driver identification number stored in saidmemory; and a control unit controlling the moving body to stop theengine of the moving body if the collator determines that the driveridentification number stored in the memory is the same as the driveridentification number inputted by the driver when the driver stops themoving body from moving.
 30. The mobile terminal for a moving body,comprising: a memory storing time interval information; a collectorcollecting moving body operating information including moving body speedand moving distance of the moving body by the time interval informationstored in the memory; a position detecting unit detecting a currentposition of the moving body; and a collator, wherein the memory stores aplurality of sets of the time interval information and positioninformation; the collator collates the current position of the movingbody with the position information stored in the memory, and extractsthe time interval information which is paired with position informationwhen it is determined that the moving body currently exists; and thecollector collects the moving body operating information by the timeinterval extracted by the collator.
 31. A mobile terminal for a movingbody, comprising: a position detecting unit detecting a current positionof the moving body; a memory storing information concerning a permittedcondition of a moving body together with position information in whichsaid permitted condition is established; a collator reading thecondition information corresponding to the current position of themoving body determined by said position detecting unit from said memory,and collating the condition information read from said memory with thecurrent condition of the moving body; and a control unit outputting amessage to an individual in the moving body when the condition of themoving body does not meet the permitted condition of the currentposition collated by said collating means.
 32. A mobile terminal for amoving body, comprising: a memory preliminarily storing work instructioninformation, including information relating to a kind of work to beexecuted, and information related to a destination at which the work isto be executed; a position discriminating unit discriminating a currentposition of the moving body; a control unit reading out the workinstruction information from said memory, in accordance with thediscriminated current position of the moving body; and an output unitoutputting the work instruction information read out from the memory.33. The mobile terminal of claim 32, wherein: the control unit retrievesthe work instruction information corresponding to the destination whichis nearest to the discriminated current position of the moving body. 34.The mobile terminal of claim 32, wherein: the moving body is a vehicle.35. An operation management system controlling operating information ofat least one vehicle, comprising: a vehicle information database storinga vehicle class of each vehicle including corresponding operationinformation regarding operations made by each vehicle; a driving licenseclass database storing identification information of each driver anddriving license class regarding authorized vehicle operations of eachdriver; and a unit extracting said vehicle class information and saiddriving license class information from received data, and updating saidvehicle information database and said driving license class database,based on the extracted vehicle class information and the extracteddriving license class information.
 36. A moving body operationmanagement system of claim 35, wherein: said extracting and updatingunit outputs a work report of the driver and the vehicle based on theextracted vehicle class information and the extracted driving licenseclass information.
 37. A moving body operation management system as setforth in claim 17, wherein: said host unit further comprising a databaseunit containing information related to said individual and workinformation related to operations performed by said individual; whereinsaid host unit updates information contained in said database unit basedon said work report information received from said mobile terminal. 38.A moving body operating management system as set forth in claim 37,wherein: said host unit outputs a report concerning operations performedby said individual based on information contained in said database unit.39. A moving body operation management system as set forth in claim 37,wherein: said host unit further comprising a database unit containsinformation related to said moving body and operation informationrelated to operations of said moving body; wherein said transferringunit receives moving body operation information including speed and/ormoving distance of said moving body from said moving body; and said hostunit updates said information contained in said database unit based onsaid moving body operation information received from said moving body.40. A moving body operation management system as set forth in claim 39,wherein: said host unit outputs a report concerning operations performedby using said moving body based on information contained in saiddatabase unit.
 41. A moving body operation management system as setforth in claim 17, wherein: said controller further generates movingoperation information including speed and/or moving distance of saidmoving body; wherein said transfer unit further transfers said operationinformation to said host unit.
 42. A moving body operation managementsystem as set forth in claim 17 or 41, wherein: said mobile terminalfurther comprising discriminating unit discriminating a current positionof the moving body; wherein information generated by said controllercontains position information discriminated by said discriminating unit.43. The mobile terminal as set forth in claim 3, wherein said transferunit receives an operation route information; and said mobile terminalfurther comprising means for confirming whether the moving body istraveling a predetermined route contained in said operation routeinformation, and issuing an alarm when it is confirmed that the movingbody is traveling a route other than the predetermined route.
 44. Themobile terminal as set forth in claim 3 further comprising means forconfirming whether said moving body is coming close to customer.
 45. Themobile terminal as set forth in claim 44, wherein said transfer unittransfers message to inform customer that the moving body is approachingto said customer when it is confirmed that said moving body is comingclose to said customer.
 46. The moving body operation management systemas set forth in claim 17, wherein: said first transfer unit receivesinformation indicating a current position of a moving body from saidmobile terminal; and said host unit further comprising a display unitfor displaying a map information, in which the current position of themoving body received form the mobile terminal is superimposed thereon.47. The mobile terminal as set forth in claim 8, wherein the informationconcerning conditions of the moving body to be sent from said transferunit contains information indicating position of the moving body wheresaid work by the individual was made.
 48. The method for managing amoving body as set forth in claim 27, further comprising: discriminatingposition of said moving body where said operating conditions arecollected; and transmitting said operation conditions with saiddiscriminated position of said moving body.
 49. The method for managinga moving body as set forth in claim 48, wherein said position of saidmoving body is discriminated when said operating conditions arecollected.